By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
It seems more like an urban legend than anything else but coyote-dog hybrids may be roaming about Crawford County.
Victoria Carmean, director of the Humane Society Serving Crawford County, said they may have had a coyote-dog mix, also known as a coydog, at the shelter.
“We had one that was in here that we felt was probably a coyote-dog mix,” Carmean said. “Whether she was or not, we don’t know. We didn’t do any DNA testing but she matched the description and all the pictures we pulled up online.”
“It’s nothing new,” Carmean added. “You hear people talk about coydogs and then you get the Timber wolf crosses. Those things have been going on for years.”
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ website, coyotes are not native to Ohio but first started appearing in the state in 1919 and can now be found in all 88 counties. Coyotes are capable of breeding and producing offspring with their canine cousins, such as domesticated dogs, wild dogs, and wolves. Only two percent of coyote sightings, captures, and kills are actually identified as a coydog while the other 98 percent are identified as coyotes.
Carmean is no stranger to the varieties of canines that call Crawford County home. She had a feeling right away that this dog definitely had something different about it. Carmean added that the female was very nice and sweet.
“We got to looking and pulled up pictures online and started to think, ‘Wow, it’s possible this dog could be (a coydog),’” Carmean said. “Those are things that may be out and about in the community; we’re not necessarily certain of it.”
Though coydogs may not look like a typical dog or a typical coyote, Carmean said there is certainly something about that animal that tells a person they are not interacting with their usual canine.
“I think you would notice something was different,” Carmean said, “just a feeling you get from the dog. They’re built a little more different, they’re a little more wiry, they’re a little more sensitive to movement and they pick up more on, I think, body language of the people and other animals around them. The overall feeling of the animal is different.”
Without DNA testing, however, the Humane Society will never know for sure if a coydog had made its home in Crawford County.