Normally my little Pinscher Prince, lets me sleep till 6 or 7AM. But this morning he woke me at 3:30, wanting to go outside. For the very first time he jumped on my bed and was walking all over me. Thinking he really needed to go I got up and put his leash on him and started out the door. As we crossed the porch he turned and grabbed the leash with his mouth pulling me along. Like I was not going fast enough. Then he gave a short little yipp type bark. His barks are real high pitched, and often comes out as a yipp.
Suddenly, he was answered from all around us. I backed up and grabbed a shotgun. Coyotes, the short barks came from all around us in different directions. At 3:30 the Northern sky is bright, but it's still dark out. You can see well for about 50 to 60 yards, but beyond that everything is shadows. Prince really wanted to get to the road, about 60 yards from the house. Once on the road Prince started barking again, and was again answered, from every direction. Talk about making the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Prince is going wild, he starts barking and jumping high. Then standing up on his hind legs, looking through the trees and over the grass. A shadow darted across the road about 60 to 70 yards out. Now Prince has a target and wants to go that way. I am holding him back, realizing there is not going to be any potty and PP this trip. I turn and start dragging Prince back to the drive. Then two more shadows dart across the road in the opposite direction. Too far out for the shotgun. We returned to the house.
After returning to the house I realized Prince did not want to go potty, he was wanting to protect his territory. The little sucker was ready to go and fight. He had heard those Coyotes outside and that is why he wanted to go out. I took him back to his bed and threatened him with bodily harm if he woke me up again. After I went back to bed I started hearing Coyotes howling through the open window.
What's really funny is that we did not have Coyotes in Alaska 40 years ago when I first moved up here. Now they are everywhere. Fish and Game just made a change to the hunting regs, No closed season, no limit on Coyotes in certain areas of the state. I live in one of those areas.