"It came out of nowhere": coyote attacks a dog on a morning walk in Barrie

1 / 1 Barrie resident Kelly Lynes, his daughter Sandra, and his dog Fuzz, say a coyote attempted to bite the dog during an early morning walk at Sunnidale Park. Image supplied Advertisement

A Barrie man says a morning walk with his dog earlier today took a frightening turn after a near‑miss encounter with a coyote at Sunnidale Park.

Kelly Lynes and his daughter were just entering Sunnidale Park, near Letitia Street, around 5:40 a.m. on Wednesday when he says his seven‑year‑old goldendoodle was attacked from behind by a coyote that had crept up on them.

"This coyote attacked from behind and nipped at the back leg of our dog," Lines told BarrieToday. "The dog sort of saw it and turned and kind of thwarted the attack."

Lynes says the coyote slunk away after the failed bite.

"It wasn't terrified of us or anything. I thought it was pretty shocking that this thing would attack a dog bigger than him," he said, noting his dog weighs about 80 pounds. "(The coyote) was quite aggressive."

After checking to make sure his dog was OK, Lines and his daughter decided to leave the park and head home, just to be safe.

"We checked and it didn't puncture the skin or anything," he said.

As someone who regularly walks in the area, Lynes says today's incident has prompted him to possibly find a new area for him and his dog to get their exercise.

"We also will take the dog off the leash at that time in the morning, because there's nobody around, just let him run, but now, my gosh, I don't know about going back to the park," he said. "We've seen coyotes in the park before, (but) they've kept their distance. This is the first time where it's been an attack.

"It was pretty shocking. There were two adults and a dog and this thing still attacked us," Lynes added.

Once he and his daughter turned to face the animal, it backed off, he said, but added the coyote was "not in a big hurry."

"It wasn't afraid of us. It just came out of nowhere. When we turned into the park, there's a hedge row there and we weren't paying any attention," Lynes said. "I didn't look to see if there's an animal crouched there. Normally, we'd see them in the distance, but this just came out of nowhere."

Lynes says he wants other dog owners to be cautious in the park, where incidents involving coyotes have also been reported in the past.

"I would caution everybody to be very careful, especially if you had a smaller dog," he said. "Our dog is about 80 pounds, so it was bigger than the coyote that attacked us. But I can't imagine what would happen if it was a smaller dog."

Lynes said he reported the incident to local animal control and the Ministry of Natural Resources, but was told there was little they could do given that no one was injured.