Panda: The Dog Who Was Part Coyote
76The year was 1976 and my parents' dog had just passed away. Their friend had a few puppies and decided to give one to my parents. Apparently these people were breeding a dog with a coyote, which is not something I would choose to do, but apparently these people thought it was a good idea. However, since no one really was interested in buying their mixed breed puppies they decided to give the remainder to friends and neighbors. Someone made a comment on this hub about how no one purposely breeds dogs with coyotes, but I suggest people do their research before jumping to such grandiose conclusions. There are people who create exotic breeds between dogs and coyotes, and even though this is not something I agree with, it does happen. Today I would never adopt a mixed coyote/dog, but back then people were not as knowledgeable about not breeding wild animals with dogs. At least I hope no informed person engages in this practice today as it is unfair to the animals. A couple hundred years ago coyotes were mostly found west of the Mississippi River, but today large numbers of coyotes have migrated to the eastern part of the United States. Thus, it seems through out the history of the United States there have been a very rare cases in which coyotes were bred with dogs. After reading stories on the web I see there are quite a few coydogs out there, but something about purposely breeding canis latrans (coyotes) with canis lupus familiaris (domesticated dogs) is very disturbing. On one website a man claimed he wanted a better breed of dog and was looking for the coydog, which just seems risky after all the things I have read. The coyote is a wild animal and should not be forced to mate with a dog, but of course living arrangements do need to be made for offspring that had no choice in the matter.
Apparently a coydog is a mix between a male coyote and a female dog, and a dogote is a mix between a female coyote and a male dog. Panda was a dogote and did have few of the traits of this mixed breed, such as being extremely shy and not very social. Panda ended up being a very sweet and gentle dog despite being a dogote, but I could not imagine adopting a dog such as her today. We lived in an isolated part of the mountains and Panda was always in our yard with us, or we would take her out hiking, so she lived a pretty solitary life. To my surprise today there are still people who are researching into buying coydogs and dogotes, but I cannot say whether this is a good idea. Panda lived between 1976-1989, but in the last twenty years I have never met anyone who had a dogote or coydog. When I was contemplating writing about pets this week I decided to write about Panda because coydogs/dogotes are very unusual pets, and I really had not thought much about this breed.
By the way coyotes are not scary and for the most part they leave humans alone, as I witnessed on my many walks through the national forest. There are a few incidents where coyotes have attacked domestic animals, and even rarer humans, but we must keep in mind that humans have encroached upon their natural habitat. A few hundred years ago coyotes roamed free and only saw a few humans. Native Americans had a great deal of respect for coyotes and many of their creation stories revolve around this cunning trickster. Some tribes even cross bred their dogs with the local coyote population, creating new and diverse breeds. This rest of this Hub is about the story of Panda, the dog that looked quite a bit like a coyote. Anyone who has similar stories about dogotes or coydogs is welcome to share in the comments section of this Hub.
Panda The Snoop
Panda was a mischievous puppy that got into most anything, hence her being named after the story of Pandora's box. She was raised was a cat named Tiger and loved cats unlike some dogs that like to chase domesticated felines. In the future I will try to find a picture of Panda curling up with our cats because I would like readers to see what I mean. Actually it was not until we got our dog Lady that we learned about the concept "fighting like cats and dogs". Lady was always a very sweet dog that socialized well and loved human attention, but when first adopted her she used to chase our cats away from their food or water. Unlike Lady, Panda was raised with Tiger the cat from the time she was a puppy, so she actually thought of him as an older brother and used to follow him around the house. If Panda tried to take Tiger's food or toy he would swat her on the nose, which was quite a funny site to see. Panda loved chocolate and you had to be careful not to leave a candy bar lying around the house because she would eat it if left unattended.
One of my favorite pictures of Panda was taken during the great snowfall of 1979. During that winter the San Bernardino Mountains experienced heavy snow storms, and often snowplough were unable to clear all the roads for several days. I was told Panda and I apparently had a wonderful time playing in the snow, and the picture below was the aftermath of one of those snow storms illustrates she did enjoyed the white frozen stuff. Although I do have funny early memories such as getting in trouble for eating cat food and playing in the snow with Panda, I was only a year old and do not remember anything about the winter of 1979. However, this picture of Panda playing in the snow is a great photographic reminder of the wonderful times we had in those days. Today it is very special to me to look at pictures of a dog I remember from my youth, and to think about how some things stay the same over the years. There will always be amazing snowfall, and dogs who enjoy playing in these.
Panda And Her Pups
The vet said the likelihood of Panda ever giving birth to puppies was low because of her mix. However, evidentally a dog did jump over the fence and mated with Panda because she had a litter of puppies during the winter of 1979. We kept two of the puppies and their names were King and Natasha. King was a very noble dog with a tall and very lean physique. He also had yellow/black fur and resumbled a German Sheperd that used to frequent the neighborhood. I guess we know what that German Sheperd was up to! My sister and I used to ride King around the backyard, until we got in trouble and had to stop.
Natasha was a very beautiful dog that literally had bluish fur and a somewhat shy temperament like her mother.When Natasha was a puppy she ran off for a couple of hours and was hit by a car. The vet wanted my parents to simply put Natasha down, but they loved this dog so much and decided to go to another vet over forty miles away that agreed to reset her leg in a cast. Natasha lived eleven years after her accident, but she was always a little rotund because she could not walk easily after the accident. She had a noticeable limp for the rest of her life, but I commend my parents for not putting her down and saving her life. This beautiful dog was more important than saving the money for the operation, which I suppose taught me a very important lesson early in life. Money is not everything, but life in all forms is very important and should be respected.
Panda The Wonderful Dog
Unfortunately my sister were too young to remember Panda and Natasha as much as I do. I grew up with Panda and her pups King and Natasha, so these were the first dogs I ever knew. I distinctly remember silly things such as putting a sombrero on Panda's head and letting her walk around that way for awhile. Also I recall the mischievous things such as feeding her chocolate (her favorite thing to sneak) even though I was not supposed to, but kids do things like that! She loved to sneak chocolate whenever someone was not looking, so as many children do I gave it to Panda because kids like to make their pets happy. Panda was a beautiful and shy dog that I have fond memories of to this day.
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Thanks for commenting Ryan. I am so happy I decided to buy a scanner last year because this one enhances many of the older photographs.
I am interested in any odd traits your dog may have had. If you noticed any differences between yours and other dogs can you explain? I'm trying to figure some things out with my own dog is why I ask, thanks!
Hi Shili,
Well I was ten when this dog passed away, so here are a few things I may have noticed. Our half coyote dog and her offspring has smaller feet than most larger dogs. Specially I remember noticing how large our Siberian Huskeys feet were compared to our previous dogs.
Great hub! I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Eternal!
We own a farm in North Alabama just outside of Chattanooga TN, one day my husband visited the farm and found a solid white puppy with ice blue eyes. She was beautiful but just about starved. He took her to the vet, where she stayed 10 days and brought back to health. The vet says she is a rare breed called a coydog- part coyote. But he says she is 1 in 10,000 because of her sold white with the ice blue eyes. She is about 4 months old and seems to have a wonderful personality. You can tell she is happy to be alive, we cannot keep her and hope we can find a good home for her, I had never heard of a coydog, but want to be sure we give her new owners good information. Has anyone ever seen a solid white coydog?
I have not BB, but maybe there are some forums on coydogs where you could post asking. I have find a couple of websites where the owners of coydogs and dogotes talk about their experiences with their pets.
Ah, so Cute!!
Ah, so Cute!!
Coyote dogs aren't really as rare as people think. Coyote females have sometimes been said to lure male dogs into the woods to breed and then having other coyotes kill the male dog to eat or for territorial reasons. I had a coydog when I was young too, an accidental one, bred naturally in the country. She was a wonderful dog but dangerous at times, VERY territorial, and would hunt and kill wild rabbits and beavers as well as deer. She only lived 7 years before cancer got her. Also your vet saying coydogs are probably sterile is so wrong, that's based on the myth that all hybrids behave like mules (when in fact very few do!) I wrote a whole hub on hybrids. Check it out if you want. :) Anyway, thanks for the story! I haven't heard anyone else's actual experiances with these creatures either.
Theophanes,
I agree with what you say here. Keep in mind this was a vet back in the early eighties, and even today most people I have talked to have never seen a coydog. I few nature experts in our area have shared there are probably more hybrid dogs than people think. I am interested hearing your experiences, so thanks for sharing.
Great hub! Fun to read.
Thanks for reading and stopping by marshall.
Thank you for sharing this. I always worried about the coyotes killing my dog. I even heard that they would lure a dog in heat away and kill her, or lure male dogs with one of their females in heat and then kill them.
So I have to say your story sparked my curiosity.
My dog looks to me to be part wolf. I also agree that wild animals should not be combined with domestic ones.
Mountain Mama,
I have heard about cases were coyotes and wolves attack domestic dogs, and other cases where they mate with the female domestic dogs. It is always good to be careful with are pets. You never know your dog could be part wolf. I would definitely ask a vet because that would be interesting to find out.
wow, great hub. I have never heard of the Coyote and domestic dog mating. I have owned wolf hybrids and dingo hybrids. But good hub.
AshleyNikole,
Wolf and dingo hybrids sound interesting too. The people that mated the coyote with the German Shepard did this back in the seventies, and I have never really heard of many other people doing it. We loved Panda, but the only reason we adopted her was because our other dog had passed away in a car accident.
My daughter found a puppy on the side of the road her mom was dead when the puppy grew up we found out she was a coyote. She is a very sweet coyote.She mated with a black lab now we have nine puppies.
I have a Coydog as well. His name is Trooper and he is one of the best dogs I have ever owned. He is Austrailian Cattle Dog and Coyote. His father being the Coyote. He turned 13 January 12th 2010 and he is my best friend. He has one brown/golden eye and one piercing blue eye and he has a very high pitched ''yip'' instead of a bark and he will randomly howl for no reason. He seems to do it more since he's gone deaf. I do stress that anyone wanting a Coydog doesn't really know what they're getting into. He is the smallest of my four dogs and he is most definetly the most dominant. and he has bitten a couple of people because they cornered him in my house or he was trying to protect me. I got him from someone who didn't bother telling me what breed he was. Ooops. I wouldn't trade him for the world though, he's my best friend.
Thanks for sharing your stories Lizz and Kristy. I definitely would stress to everyone not to purposely adopt coy dogs, as you never know their temperament. Our dog Panda came to my parents back in 1976, and I think the people that bred her were not very with it when it came to those things. I do not think many people would do this today.
I had a coydog in the 70's and 80's. She lived 15 years, she was a weirdo, a lot of fun, I'd certainly adopt her again if I found her lost in the desert again. She did pose some behavioral challenges! I miss her. My Aussies are so wasy I'm spoiled.
Jenny,
Coydogs are very unusual creature indeed! I certainly would hope people would not breed these dogs intentionally, but adopted a stray is a good deed.
What a great hub! I have posted a link to your hub on my Dog Tails blog on blogspot.com
Can I see your blog Enelle? I would like to link to your hubs on my blog as well :).
I would be honoured SweetiePie! I will email you the link rather than put it here :) I'll let you decide that LOL
Enelle,
You are a great writer, and I would not mind you sharing your link here :).
sweet pie, thanx for the informative and warm tale of the canus lupis familiaris among us... and dogote's out there of course. peace, greg z...
my shar pei accidenly got breed by a coyote 2 and a half years ago,2 pups live in the city and do great as city dogs,I kept 2 pups but one was not good with my smaller dog so someone who lived in the national forest took her and the female I have is wonderful. Unlike wolf dogs they do not test you to be take over the pack, a sharp no and they hide. But they can be fear bitters and are 50 percent wild animal,so you always need to remember that,she is afraid of people she does not know, but is smarter and more loving then any dog I have had. yes she will kill small animals and has a high prey drive. American Indians breed coyotes and wolfs with their dogs all the time, and your local library should have some good books on pet coyotes and coydogs, alot have been written. One forth coydogs seem to make good stable pets I know alot of people with them..and some are breed in oregan for sheep herding dogs.
I have a 22 year old coydog, (one of the benefits of hybrid vigor, shes never been sick, EVER) she was very skittish and somewhat aggressive when i got her as a small child. we thought she was just a kinda ugly mutt. over the years she has turned into a wonderful companion , but is still a little wierd around strangers. she is very protective , and i believe her to be a good judge of character. she has never harmed anyone or anything. We have had over 30 rescue dogs and cats in our homes as i was growing up , she has a very strong maternal instinct , she even was a "camp Couselor" to the small dog group at a doggie daycare i worked at. She was very independent , hyper and seemingly confused as a teen doggie, but i quickly learned how to manage an alpha position above her, and she drastically had a change in behavior. i wouldn't recommend a coydog to an inexperienced dog owner. and i would research both dog psycology and coyote behavior if you want, have or think you have one. coydogs CAN be great dogs for the right people, but remember they are scavengers, so even the best behaved have a tendency to go through garbage if they can get to it, and if they're like mine, Dig fairly elaborate dens all over your yard , which can pose a threat to small children or other pets due to the possibility of collapse. just like with any other canid , strong leadership, defined and persistant expecations, adequate exercise and SOCIALIZATION, can prevent any behavior problems, be it a hybrid or not. also if you truly believe you have a coydog, most universities will gladly examine or genetically test your dog for free. ^__^ i hope this helps!!! oh and also , a solid white coydog with blue eyes is usually and intentional hybrid from a coyote and Siberian husky.
I think coy dogs are beautiful, and if these occur by accident I think that is fine. I do feel purposely breeding a coyote with a dog to create exotic dogs for sale is questionable, especially since many dog owners would not know how to handle such offspring, as you have suggested. You sound like a very informed dog owner, and maybe you can write a hub about your experiences. When we adopted our dog we did not realize she was a coydog, and we would not change adopting her, but we would never adopt a dog like this one again.
i was living in the Yukon territory and my roomates girlfriend had rescued a husky cross puppy and called me. She was abandoned on the streets. so when she told me she found this pup and couldnt keep her i instantly went and got her. as she got older all the elders told me a had a very special dog. she was part coyote so they tell me.. shes just about 3 years old and has to be the smartest pooch i have ever owned. i got her trained by hand signals and has to be the gentalest loving dog i have ever seen. so friendly and protects the family. she has to friends she lives with a chihuahuaX and a Manx cat. i have to say so far shes been a bundle of joy who gets to sleep in my bed everynight.
I currently (or so we are inclined to believe) have a Coydog. Hes Part Husky and coyote we think. He's great with small animals and such. Tho hes kinda.. funny with people. he will do the normal run and circle back that a coyote does and his bark isn't normal either its kind a bark which turns into a howl. By far THE BEST dog i've ever owned.
hey i have a question i have a coyote part husky mix and she is shy from others and she is a great dog... i got her from alberta but she ate a cat lol and she wont learn to like sit or come is there any way i can teach her differently i am using the treats but nope
@Angel
I would be concerned if your dog is eating cats. Our dog that was part coyote never did that, and neither did her puppies that we raised. I think you should talk to your vet about this, and I would not let your dog go around small animals or other dogs. You need to build a secure fence so he cannot get out and harm others.
This is an awesome hub. I grew up with a dog that live for 14 years and have countless memories of our time together. My dog wasn't mixed with coyote though. Thanks for the hub.
Hi Sudiekram,
I would love to read a hub about your dog if you have written one. Thanks for commenting and reading about Panda, she was a very amazing dog.
Sweet story. I am glad you shared this experience. Ignorance at the time was bliss, otherwise, you never would have adopted her. I am glad she came into your life and gave you such joy.
Toknowinfo,
Well she was a good dog, but today I would be scared to hear about people breeding coyotes with dogs. If it happens, it happens, but anyone who purposely does it is not be fair to the dog, or the coyote.
I rescued a puppy last year at this time and found out she was part coyote. She is so attached to me and has alot of fear agression toward strangers. I'm investing alot of time with training and desenitizing her in various situations. It has been a year of constant work and I can see her progressing in a positive direction.
Sounds like you are doing a good job mtnbiker.
The picture of her near the vw looks exactly like my dog. My dog was found on an indian reservation abandoned. I had no idea of her background until I started seeing her behavior change unlike any other dog I've owned. I hope the link shows her picture.
Wow, your dog looks a lot like Panda. I was ten when Panda passed away, but it was like seeing her again when I saw the picture of your dog. Thanks for sharing this!
I was so intrigued by this article. The information was engaging and 'real to life' in emotional content. The idea of mixing breeds brings on more elaborate discussion. I loved how beautiful Panda was. I'm glad to know you area Hubber, too. However, I met you on RedGage.
Hi Paula Andrea, Ma,
Glad to here you are a local area hubber. I have looked at some of your pictures on RedGage, so I will definitely check out your hubs.
Great article. It sounds like Panda was a very nice gentle dog. Great story.
She was a very gentle dog. I would not recommend breeding a dog with a coyote today just to do it, but at the time she was a wonderful dog.
What an interesting story, Sweetiepie. I had not seen it before, and found all of the comments and experiences very interesting, as well.
I live in the Sierra foothills and we see coyotes now and then. I never knew they would mate with domestics, but I guess there is lots of evidence. (Our little terrier dog is 'fixed' besides never being outside alone).
One of our early experiences with a coyote is having one set up a full-on howl a few feet from our bedroom window, one full moon night.
I tell people that the dents in our ceiling above the bed are a result of our reaction to that event.
I enjoyed your hub very much.
Hi Rochelle Frank,
I would never recommend that people bred a coyote with a dog on purpose, but there are cases where people find out the puppies are mixed breed after the fact. I do think the mixed dogs are very beautiful, and Panda had a great personality.
I seriously doubt that anyone was purposefully breeding coyotes with dogs. It's not legal to "own" a coyote so far as I know, but that probably is different from state to state.
Coyotes are seasonal breeders. The coyotes do NOT breed year round like dogs will do.
In Southern states like Oklahoma and Texas the longer periods of warm weather encourage coyotes to breed more frequently, and so for that reason there are more coydogs in those states.
Your comments are stringent, and come off as a lecture. I happen to know for the fact the people who bred Panda did this back in the 70's, and since you were no there, you are really out of depth saying what is so. I have done my research, and talked to several people who have owned mixed breed dogs. One person even emailed me to say he does breed dogs with coyotes. That is his choice, not something I would encourage. Most people do not enjoy a lecture when you comment on their hubs.
Ryan Hupfer 3 years ago
Awwwww....those are some SUPER cute puppies...great pics and awesome Hub, SweetiePie!