I was out walking Trink this evening, and we actually spotted one of the local coyotes out in the easement, not that far away. (I'm terrible at judging distance, but I'd say like 40-50 feet!) Up until now we'd only heard them at night. Trink was very interested, and that got me wondering... do dogs understand that coyotes and wolves are not domestic dogs? Trink was in alert mode, but I don't know if she was thinking "gee.. a friend!" or "kill the enemy!" The other confounding factor is that greyhounds were brought out west largely to chase down and kill jackrabbits and coyotes. So I don't know if she has an instinctive dislike of them, or if they need to be trained to hunt coyotes... and if that, then do they distinguish between them and other dogs?

We have coyotes here as well and when my hound hears them, her ears go down, so I guess she recognizes in the call that they are not domestic friendly animals. Dogs have gone missing in our neighbourhood, albeit small dogs I should say. I know Taffy would give a good fight, she is quite large, but amongst a pack, no, she wouldn't win.

Trink could probably catch a scent at a distance (of the coyote) and recognize danger in the scent.

Greyhounds and the Borzoi don't have to be trained to chase and kill, it is inherent.