I live in the mountains of Kentucky and we have them around the place. We put our two German Shepherds inside at night. I have sat on my back porch at dusk and listened to them lure a stray or lost hunting dog before. You hear the dog barking and then you hear the coyotes attack and the death scream of the dog, it’s over in about ten seconds then a few yips and silence.
One night in early fall it was cool and we had the windows open and about 4:00am a big pack came by the house just in the wood line and let out their howls. I immediately woke up but my wife was like Sylvester the Cat in the old Looney Tunes cartoons where Sylvester would get scared and you would see him claws attached to the ceiling, it scared her to death, she woke up almost in a scream herself. She said what is that? A pack of coyotes just outside the yard near the bedroom I said. What are you going to do about it she said? Nothing, as soon as I turn on a light or open the door they will be gone, go back to sleep. I did but she was up the rest of the night listening.
Yes we have had a pack in our backyard by the edge of our lake and running tipping down our side yard in the late night hours. Bear in mind we live in a subdivision in metro Atlanta. There are no stray cats in our subdivision. There used to be a bunch of them.
We have a rural property north of Atlanta we are getting ready to build on but we have been doing weekends up there in our travel trailer which we have parked up there. So far we have seen raccoons, coyotes and a fairly large bear at night on the acreage. We are going to put up hog wire fencing around the acre or so where we put the house, garden and new chicken coop. We’re going to get a couple of Anatolians or Karacachans who can run off a pack of coyotes or even a bear in a pinch. German Shepherds are great dogs but they just don’t have the size or bite strength to take on coyotes. I don’t blame you for keeping them inside at night. I would too.