Coyote

[robby]

 The four of us had another exciting coyote encounter. At the far southern extent of our walk territory, there was a big racket down in the creek bed. Halo quickly ran over to guard, and then Jack did the same, a little hesitantly. The two big male dogs took positions about 10 yards apart, facing the noise, and flushed out a large coyote that ran away on the opposite side of the creek. It was probably Jack's first look at a coyote. He had passed coyote scat on our walks, and now he has finally heard and seen a big one. He absolutely knew it wasn't a dog, and reacted instinctively to the threat. He was jazzed and happy afterwards. Halo always performs awesomely to coyote threats, as his breed has been doing for ten thousand years. Dinah didn't want to approach it or guard, but watched quietly alongside me.

Jack is a large Rhodesian ridgeback, so he has the genes and instincts to be effective against predators. We had a local story a few years ago, about two Rhodesian ridgebacks that actually treed a  California mountain lion.