My
dogs are not a sentimental bunch. With only few exceptions, any animal that isn't them is, potentially, food. The exceptions include people and, grudgingly, the
cats that live in our house, and, it seems, other dogs. Their lack of sentimentality not withstanding, there is evidence that their disinclination to eat other dogs extends to dead coyotes, up to a point.
This past winter, a coyote died on my property. I didn't see any obvious signs of why it died but there it was. As we passed nearby on our various hikes, my dogs would show interest, but also respect. They made a point of checking it out, sniffing and circling, but they didn't paw at it, or chew it, or disturb it.
Months later, the corpse looked pretty much the same:
It looked the same to me, that is. To the dogs, it was totally different. Over just a couple of walks, they were tearing it apart, chasing each other for pieces, chewing it up (it was totally disgusting to me but what do I know?).
So I think for a long time, and the time was enhanced by the cold weather, the body smelled like a dog. You may argue that a coyote is not a dog at all. Since dogs and coyotes can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, I would argue that you would be wrong. Anyway, I think it's clear that my dogs thought this coyote had been a dog. They have no compunction whatsoever about cat corpses, skunk corpses, weasel corpses. But they left this corpse alone for months. Then, one day, it stopped being the corpse of a dog and became, well, meat. It was rotten, smelly, disgusting meat, to be sure, but that's never been a deal-breaker for them.
