Rowdy, a four-year-old male coydog, and his owner, Kelsey Ankoviak, enjoy the annual Tour de Fat festival in Fort Collins, Colorado.
COYDOGS: A RISING TREND
Coyote and domestic dog hybrids are becoming more common as people search for exotic pets or adopt unknowingly from rescues. These hybrids, called “coydogs,” are not as easily recognized as wolf hybrids because of the lack of available information, cost effective DNA testing, or resources to support potential owners.
Mark Prange is the owner of a suspected coydog named Rasta and is optimistic about the hybrid’s role as a pet.
“They are phenomenal dogs,” Prange said. “Within the limitations, and if you understand you don’t have a Golden Retriever, they are great.”
DNA testing for coyotes and coydogs is difficult because DNA can differ greatly amongst coyote bands in different areas. The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis in California is one of few laboratories that boast a large enough DNA library to be able to identify coyote DNA.
“We use genetic profiling tools to assess canid diversity in dogs, wolves, and coyotes,” said Beth Wictum, the Associate Director of the VGL Forensics at UC Davis. “These tools can assess ancestry in hybrids.”
Prange adopted Rasta and her now deceased littermate, Osa, 15 years ago from Socorro, New Mexico where coyotes and dogs are believed to mate frequently because of the lack of fencing and high percentage of strays.
“It’s an interstate town – a desert,” Prange said. “You do have quite a bit of interaction between the dogs in town…and the rest of the world.”
According to Katie Geist, a staff member at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide, Colorado, most coydogs are intentionally bred unlike Rasta and her sister.
“We wish that breeding industry would just go away,” Geist said. “Most wolfdogs and coydogs are bred, so that’s a human issue. For wolfdogs, there are about 250,000 that are bred in this country and 80% will not live to be three years old, but we don’t get very many calls on coydogs so I think that’s a less common thing.”
Prange encountered numerous difficulties while raising Rasta and Osa because of their “wild side.”
“When [Rasta] was younger, she and her sister were terrible,” Prange said. “With other animals, they were not safe at all. With kids, I mean, it was hit or miss. I had pretty good voice control over them and I watched them pretty closely so we never had any incidents except one time my friend brought her toddler over and I caught the dogs stalking her. I called them off instantly so it was no problem, but it was interesting. Would they have hurt her? Probably not. I trusted them pretty well, but I also kept a close eye on them because they did show a lot of hunting instinct.”
DNA tests at UC Davis cost $400 through the forensics laboratory. The high cost of DNA testing and limited choices lead to owner speculation, although the VGL Service unit hopes to offer the tests at lower prices in the future according to Wictum.
Geist claims that hybrid mislabeling is common.
“I think any hybrid like that can be difficult because the animal may not know what they are, but I think that there are a lot of animals that are mislabeled,” Geist said. “People label them with wolf or coyote when they’re not, and that can lead to an animal’s death. A breeder can tell you one thing and it’s not true. Heck, I have a sister-in-law who thinks her dog has coyote in it, but there’s no proof. You know, it’s just all what she thinks, and that dog is just fine.”
As Rasta slows down due to her old age, Prange has found it easier to trust her off the leash and was even able to add a Jack Russell Terrier/Chihuahua mix to the pack to help fill the void of Osa’s death five years ago.
“[Rasta] is really old now. She is 15, so she has pretty much settled down quite a bit and I can trust her around almost anybody,” Prange said.
Coyotes are wild animals and when any wild animal is crossed with a domesticated pet, it is difficult to know which traits will dominate. Socialization at a young age is also imperative, according to Wictum. Knowledge about coydogs is on the rise, but it will be a long time before the popularity of this hybrid will parallel wolf hybrids.