Coming up to a coyote pack during an evening walk

This afternoon in the Shell Ridge open space area in Walnut Creek, we came across a lone coyote.

This lone coyote stood in the middle of the wide-open trail and did not move as Bailey, Chloe, and I came over a ridge and came across him.

Bailey had his training collar on, so I turned the dial up to 4 (goes up to 5), and as Bailey started to move slowly toward the lone coyote, I yelled out "leave it" and hit the button. He didn't back off so I did it again.

A Vizsla might be tough and might not be taken down by a lone coyote but wouldn't stand much of a chance against more than one.

Bailey turned to the side and moved off to the right as I screamed at the coyote to move off. It didn't move more than 6 feet even with all my waving of arms and yelling.

As we walked away, the other two coyotes that were just up on the ridge about 50 feet away started doing the "coyote bark-cry."

This was a set-up. An unsuspecting dog that liked to chase would have followed the lone coyote up the ridge and gotten ambushed by the others. Three against one.

We took another trail away from the area and warned others as we walked back to the Jeep.

The coyotes know they are protected, so they are very bold. I'm glad I am taking the time to train Bailey to leave coyotes alone.

As a coyote stands in it "submissive" pose, it looks fairly harmless.

Don't be fooled. They are very clever survivors and can take down a domestic dog working in a pack.

They are faster than most domestic dogs, so they don't really fear them.