The first time a coyote follows you, you will almost certainly misread it. It appears forty yards back on the greenbelt, matches your pace, and stops when you stop. Your stomach drops, your dog starts pulling, and you do the thing that makes it worse — you turn and hurry away with a dog on a long line behind you.
Most of what owners hear about coyotes is either panic or dismissal. The useful version sits in between, and it starts with the calendar.
Fall Is the Second Coyote Season Nobody Warns You About
Everyone hears about spring. Breeding and pup-rearing run roughly March through August, and conflict reports climb through them. What gets left out is what comes next: during the dispersal period from September through November, that year's juveniles leave the pack for the first time and hunt alone, in territory they do not know, with no adults setting the rules. Reported conflicts peak a second time.
Read this in late August and you are at the front edge of that window, not the end of one — and inexperienced young coyotes are exactly the ones that test a fence line or turn up in a subdivision at 4 p.m. instead of 4 a.m.
Following You Is Usually Escorting, Not Hunting
The behavior that frightens people most is often the least dangerous one. Wildlife groups including The Fur-Bearers and WildCare describe escorting: a parent coyote trailing a person at a fixed distance to walk them out of the area around a den. It can involve stiff posture, a growl, even bared teeth — and it is protective, not predatory. The coyote wants you gone, not your dog.
So do what it is asking: keep moving the way you were headed, and it stops following. Do not stand and film it, walk toward the den for a better look, or let your dog drift to the end of a retractable leash.
The concerning version looks different — a coyote that approaches, closes distance, or ignores you entirely. That is habituation, and habituation traces back to food.
How to Protect Your Dog From Coyotes on a Walk
Hazing — making yourself loud, large, and unpleasant — is the standard advice, and there is now data behind it. A 2025 PLOS One study of a community hazing program found coyotes retreated in about 84% of encounters, with two caveats: the effect was short-term rather than a lasting behavior change, and average responses were weaker when a dog was present.
That second finding is the one to sit with. The moment you most want hazing to work is the moment it works least well. Your dog is not a deterrent — your dog is why the coyote is interested.
The Humane Society's hazing guidance is simple, and the order matters:
- Do not run. Face the coyote, stand tall, and make yourself big.
- Be loud and specific — yell, clap, use an air horn, a whistle, or a can with coins in it.
- Advance toward it while doing so, and escalate if it holds ground.
- Pick up small dogs and carry them out.
- Keep the leash short. Urban Coyote Research notes serious incidents overwhelmingly involve off-leash dogs — a six-foot leash is the highest-value item on this list.
Their own caveat is easy to miss: if a coyote is behaving as it should and keeping its distance, leave it alone. Hazing is for animals that have gotten too comfortable, not for every coyote you see.
Your Fence Is Probably Not a Coyote Fence
A four-foot picket fence is a suggestion. Coyotes clear six-foot fences routinely and dig under almost anything. If you are genuinely fencing against them, the spec is roughly six feet minimum, buried or aproned 12–18 inches down against digging, with a roller bar or angled overhang on top to deny grip — the same build that keeps your own escape artist in.
Short of a rebuild, the unglamorous habits do most of the work. Go out with small dogs after dark instead of opening the door. Feed pets indoors, clear fallen fruit and spilled birdseed, and secure the bins — that is the food part, and it is the whole game.
The Part That Turns a Scare Into a Search
The outcome that happens more often than a bite: nothing touches your dog, and your dog is gone anyway.
A dog that sees a coyote either charges it or bolts from it, and both end the same way — a panicked animal at full speed away from you, through the fence gap, across a road, into blocks it does not know. If they were on a flat collar, there is a fair chance the collar is behind them in the brush. Recovery then rests entirely on whoever finds them being able to reach you fast.
That is the case for redundant ID rather than one device. A microchip is permanent but needs a scanner and a shelter visit. A Bloomtag NFC tag closes the immediate gap — the finder taps the flower-shaped tag with any smartphone and your contact page opens right away, no app on either end. Put it on a well-fitted harness instead of a bare collar and it stays on the dog when the dog stops cooperating.
The Bottom Line
Coyote risk is seasonal, and fall is a peak. Following is usually an escort, not a hunt. Hazing works, just less well with your dog beside you — which means the leash does more than the air horn. And plan for the bolt, because that is the version of this story you are most likely to live.
Get a Bloomtag — the flower-shaped NFC tag that opens your contact page with one phone tap. $24.99 one-time, no subscription ever, free worldwide shipping. Because the walk where something goes wrong is the walk you did not see coming.
This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed against the Humane Society of the United States, Urban Coyote Research (Cook County Coyote Project), The Fur-Bearers, WildCare, and a 2025 peer-reviewed hazing study published in PLOS One. It is general safety guidance, not veterinary advice — coyote encounters, local regulations, and reporting requirements vary by region, and any bite or puncture wound should be seen by your veterinarian.