a canine observation

[trappnman]

I haave a small porcelin cast iron tub in back yard. Been there a year, and been ignored by my dog Buddy.

Sunday painted the cast iron.

Yesterday, buddy came from front yard, to back yard, nose up, until he saw the painted tub- then nose exteneded, eye on the tub until he was righht on it- then he was all over that tub- standing up to look inside, smelling all parts- then of course he pissed on it (now its mine!)

anyone else see anything interesting in the behavior vis a vis coyotes?

[musher]

Spray paint and don't cover your traps?

Just funnin'!

[trappincoyotes39]

Like the charred or black blocks talked about in the past?

I have also used dead lambs in away that has worked well to catch more difficult coyotes. More sight than anything else as well.

[trappincoyotes39]

[redeagle]

By painting it, he thought there was something new in his domain- hence the curiosity. I'll bet that was a one-time response on his part and he won't do that any more (unless you paint it again in the future).

[trappnman]

I agree with a couple of the above comments-

so, I think, the following observations would be true:

familiar territory- so new, but in a "safe" environment
his nose led him around the corner, then his eyes took over

he wasn't afraid, or overly cautious
he checked it out thoroughly, before dismissing it

now I think of novel stimuli vis a vis coyotes-

and where they encounter it.

a good example of being on the spot-

and I compare Buddys reactions to "different" in unfamilar (not his) territory

[redeagle]

When Buddy is in unfamiliar territory, everything is new to him, and therefore he will be inclined to want to investigate most of the things (objects, scents, etc.) that happens to be in his line of sight and in his line of travel. When I was a new trapper, I tried to bring animals to where it was convenient for me to trap, but not convenient for the coyote, but this was a failure. Furbearers don't seem to want to go out of their way to visit a location that they normally wouldn't go to naturally. A lot of newbies expect a particular lure to call all animals from extremely long distances to their sets. I don't know of any lure that can do that consistently, if at all. There are two exceptions that I know of that will call animals to where you want to catch them. One is by establishing a bait station pre-season. The other is generally when food is extremely scarce and they are scavenging hither and yon, looking for a bite to eat to keep them alive. But this is an exception to the rule.
All this to say that a coyote MAY visit new stimuli in his familiar area, and maybe not, depending on a number of variables. A coyote in a new area may or may not visit various stimuli in the new area, depending again on a number of variables. I have found, for example, when trapping bobcats, that you'd better have any visuals in very close proximity to your set. If your visual is any distance from the set, the bobcat will visit the visual and ignore your set. I've had them play tetherball with my visuals (evidence being the visual lying on the ground, chewed on, and string holding the visual was broken). None of what I've written is scientific research results- just first hand experience from trapping over the years.

[trappnman]

no experience with bobcats to speak of, but regarding visuals at the sets for coyotes.

I used to use more bones, and found that away from the set worked better than at the set.

this past year, on day 1 I picked up at a spot 4 clean white cow skulls.

I used them each week, and concluded that adding them had value. I only used them at marginal locations- usually at places that I wanted to set but where I couldn't get to, so as experimental setups, I'd place the skull in the wide open, and have traps 50-75 feet from it. Just about all those marginal locations, became locations where I got multiple coyotes.

I'm going to use more this year I think, because for darn sure, it shows up like a ball of fire from a distance, and being away from the set removes any severe avoidance of the visual.