Coyote and dog body language

I love this photo, not for the obvious "coyote on a mission" in the foreground but for the coyotes in the background. One appears to be inviting the other to play using a classic "romping" posture that we've all seen our dogs use.

Coyotes look bigger than they actually are. When they stand under our birdfeeders, they look only slightly smaller than our dogs. However, the data say that adult coyotes range in size from 18 to 44 lbs. My dogs weigh around 60 lbs so much of the coyotes' bulk is fur.

I've been in a dry spell at my other wildlife cameras. I arrived at one of them today to discover that, for the first time since I set up the camera, the wind had blown away the snow so that I could see the pine-needle covered ground around the camera. My eyes were drawn like magnets to two piles of mountain lion scat just behind the camera. "Ah ha", I thought, "I do have a good spot here". I just need to adjust the camera in case the spot currently *behind* the camera is habitually used by mountain lions for scent marking. So, I did - and we'll see if my luck improves soon. It's a hobby that is teaching me patience, patience, patience.

K and I went for our sunrise snow bike ride today. The mountains glowed in the light of the sun just cresting the eastern hills.

I pedaled all the way to Hug Hill without getting bogged down in snow drifts, for the first time in at least a week. When we get to the top, K knows that I like to have her do tricks and other training games. Often, I just wait to see what trick she "offers" me. Today, K surprised me by offering an old favorite from before her toe amputation. She perched and balanced precariously atop a stump.

I didn't plan to ever ask her to do this one again because I thought that it might be too tough for her balance with a weakened paw. I'm glad that I was wrong!

Later in the day, we took a sunset hike. K rolled in the snow, a happy Labrador.

R got wind of the fact that someone was having fun without him and barreled into the scene with a cloud of flying snow. We sometimes call him the "fun police" because of his reaction when he discovers anything fun underway that he's not at the center of!

In the blink of an eye, snow-covered K was on her feet running with a supremely surprised look in her eyes.

Within a stride, she stopped and offered R some "calming signals". In the photo below, you can see that K is starting to lift her left front paw, a classic signal that a canine uses to try to bring down excitement or tension levels. Although it's hard to see in the photo, she also curled her body into a "C" and lowered her head, telling R to "cool it".

It worked, and R rapidly calmed down. He and K are an interesting pair because R is so excitable and K gets overwhelmed by it. The body language that they use to negotiate fascinates me.

We headed for home as dusk fell, a tired and happy pack.