trapping near domestic animals.
 

So i just got word that coyotes have started killing the sheep at my buddies place and as you can imagine he wants the coyotes dead yesterday. Im still a fairly new trapper and was planning on waiting for snow before i started setting anything but right now any way i can get coyotes is good.my big issue is. A. The farmers dogs like to wander and im afraid of them getting into trouble and B. With no snow around where would i make a set when i have no indication of where the coyotes are??
At the moment i have snares and maybe some foodholds. (old ones the farmer has i need to see what they are and what comdition first)

being new to trapping. hooking the farmer up with an experienced ADC k9 trapper. and following him/her around, learning as you go. would save the farmer time/money/livestock. and you would learn a bunch(proper equipment,techniques), aswell as avoiding a disaster if you catch his dog.

problem is, everyone i'm familiar with. wouldn't allow someone to "tag" along.

in the end, the farmer would be farther out front with a professional.

Yea that would be awesome but sadly my scedual is so random that i doubt i could get much tagging a long. I plan on calling them and if i can find where they are coming from i can sit and wait.

Go with the calling and ambush methods Tikka , you already have a good handle on that . No need to try and catch em in a trap as that could end very badly for the owners dog .

Sounds like a perfect setup for calling and shooting.
I'd choose a .22 mag or a bow of some sort if it were my project.
Call em in close and then hone my archery skills, or plant a .22 pill in their little brains.

Trapping under such circumstances is just too tricky. Targeting wild dogs around domestic dogs is problematic to say the least.
Even the experienced Coyote trappers might not like the odds of that one.

You might be able to find someone with more experience then me who would take the chance, and maybe do the job without incidents but how can you know what they can or can not do? You could be inviting a wanna be to experiment at your expense. If you recommend them.

What you do is up to you, all I can tell you is what I would do if it were my project and what I would do is shoot them. I would not trust someone I did not know very well, to do such a tricky job, that could reflect on me.
I would not even attempt to trap or snare in that situation. Snow or no snow.

But then again I'm not a Coyote trapper, just a trapper, with over forty years of experience trapping.
I've trapped and snared Coyote and Wolves, but not a lot of either.
I did not focus on one animal as some do. I trapped everything available at the time at that location, except for when I trapped for the county.

There are a lot of guys and a few gals here that probably know more about Coyote trapping then I do. Maybe one of them will offer a few suggestions.

#3 soft catches. Not much more to say. I have a dozen that are strictly for around farm yards. The only thing it hurts is the dogs pride.

the right folks are able to trap coyotes in major urban areas with the right equipment.

it can/is being done very effectively, by the people that know what there doing.

You're a caller, call them in and shoot the adults. Don't educate the adults by shooting the pups first. If you put traps out anyways and you are sure the neighbours dawg is coming, ask the neighbour to keep him at home.

Be sure you use good traps. Offset and double laminated, 3/16" on top and 1/4" under or else padded traps. If the dawgs must run at large, then you've done your part. Such traps hold humanely. Do not use stock jaw traps even if they are offset. Do not use single laminated traps if they are four coiled.

Double laminated traps are awesome! What nice steel we are using these days. All steel traps should have that wide holding surface.

Remember... We use foot traps these days.

If you catch dawg in a trap, you can send him home. Perhaps a little added negative conditioning would be in order so he doesn't come back?

thanks a lot for the help guys. i needed to make a order soon anyways so i think i will try to include a couple soft catches for this exact situation next time it happens.
in the meantime i just put on my camo and am going to try to call some in as i want to get ahead of this in case its adults teaching youngsters. now the ultimate question is what rifle do i bring :thinking-006:

Yep

Thanks Marty, I know you don't like the victor trapp much but I have caught a couple dozen dogs in them an I feel good about letting them out. There is always a good education before the release. I have only had one second catch on the same dog an it was accually five times in two years, I guess I am not that intimidating. Marty is exactly rite on the new trap standards there is allot of area for the trap to gripp. How did the trap testing go this year?

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...ps78sn7opx.jpg

managed to get this little guy tonight.
on my way to go setup i noticed this guy hanging out near some whitetail does. i kept driving then pulled off to make sure of what i saw and the fact that he was starring at me and not running led me to believe it was a pup. i stashed the truck in the ditch and snuck across a cut canola field (more like loudly crunched across) with some brush between us. the whitetails heard me quite a ways back but the coyote stayed around until i could get the gun in position. after getting into position i realized the grass was too tall for the bipod so good thing i have been preacticing offhand with my varmint guns. 156 yard shot with the 20 practical put him down for good. did some calling got some distant answers but nothing came in.

on my way back i checked my buddies barn and found a box if victor #3 longsprings that i can use. he told me of a few places that is far away from the dogs that im going to go checkout tomorrow.

Looks like one won't be a repeat offender .. you should work for the justice system !! Good luck on the rest .

Oh wow! Good ole #3 Victor Longsprings...

(Not)

Probably the fishcops aren't going to bother you on this one, but it sounds like they do intentionally frequent this site. Straight jaw traps, non modified are illegal for use on coyote, wolf and the such. Just saying. But they do get quite a few wildlife convictions from hanging out on the Internet. Please use padded traps if there is a high likelyhood of catching the neighbours dog. I have Bridger padded traps here, I'm sure Halfords and the ATA store and Trapper Gord all carry the Victor soft catch. Somebody could overnight them to you, they are relatively clean and can be set straight out of the box in a pinch (lotsa guys do) and you can be in business. You said far away from dog, but you never know how far the stupid things run.

I'm surprised that a landowner with a wandering dog would even allow you to set any type of traps in the area. He must like his sheep better than his dog....lol!

I don't mind catching coyotes in them when they are new, but coyotes are kinda hard on the pads, on a regular basis. They are a high maintenance trap. There's lots of things that I don't like about them, but the #3 softcatch works. I hate the high pan and tho I see the value of the shape of the jaws, I much prefer the increased kill area of the #3 square jawed trap. I suppose I should carry some, they did pass and people do seek them. Hopefully the Bridger 3 padded gets tested as a four coil and does better than the two coil did. Hopefully the Duke 4 both double laminated and padded gets tested in Canada too. We need a lot more testing to be done.

thanks for the help marty! this saved me some researching! these traps seemed fairly old and i seemed to recal something about the legality of straight jaw traps. if it seems too good to be true it probably is so i was planning on doing some research on the mater.
and as far as the dogs go these dogs are too old to make it as far as the spot i would plan on trapping anyways and the fact that there is a 1000meter slough between them and the house helps as well. I was only planning on snaring a deadpit this year so this is all a bit new to me.
thanks so much for your help and patience with new guys like me.

I have some Victor #3 soft catch I don't do much foothold in but they help me gain permission. When I talk to farmer I want to trap or snare on their property and they kinda waffle and hum and haw a bit I pull out my #3 soft I show them the trap set it then stick my hand in it. This action got me permission where their idea of taps was negative. I also get a kick out of peoples reactions. He asked me where the teeth on the jaw were. I explained they were illegal and we humainlty trap animal now. It isn't the wild west anymore.
Yes they are a maintenance ridden trap.
If I were to amp up my foot holding I'd go with a different trap.
Just my 2 cents.