Screaming fox won't leave me alone

[DonyaQuick]

There is a fox in the area that I have been having trouble with for the last 3 months or so, and it's gotten worse recently. I know from snow and mud in winter/spring that it never came near the house or coop then, so it has only started coming nearby since then. The last few weeks, it seems to have less interest in my coop than my house, which I do not understand. It comes every 1-2 nights, often right up to the wall below the bedroom window and starts screaming...and screaming, and screaming, and screaming. It keeps screaming at the house a couple times per minute until I get up, put shoes on, and charge out after it with the dog on a leash - she is a nearly 1-year-old great pyrenes. My dog gets angry when she smells fox and is excellent at tracking, so I have tried to give it a scare by having it go right up the trail it leaves as fast as I can go to the edge of the property (which is a good distance) and then marking places along he way back since if often follows the same path once it's up in the forest. It doesn't seem to be making a difference though and it seems like there is now competitive marking going on between them. I haven't kept a log of it but it honestly is starting to feel like the more I go after it with my dog the more it's showing up even though it clearly runs away from her. My dog just had her first season. Is it possible that she's actually attracting it?

If my dog is attracting rather than repelling this fox, is there anything else I can put down to repel it? Even though the chickens should be safe from it at night and I have not lost any chickens to predators, having such a bold one get going is surely not a grand situation and not something I can just let be even if I ignore the sleep deprivation it's causing me. Shooting it would be pretty hard unfortunately, since I can't stick a gun out the windows on the back of the house easily (not quickly anyway) and the front door is on the other side of the house, which gives it plenty of time to get distance in before I get around. It comes at completely random times between dusk and dawn so I can't even camp and wait for it unless I want to pull all-nighters waiting for it. I would try to trap it, but there is also a skunk that lives nearby and goes similar places. The last thing I want is to find angry pepe le pew in a cage. As far as I know, anything that would attract a fox into a trap would also risk bringing in the skunk. I'm running out of ideas.

 

[neo71665]

Might be one that was trained to lose it's fear of humans because some moron was feeding it.

 

[SourRoses]

Is there any recess under your house where another fox might have gotten trapped or strangely comes to meet it or something? Lol
Have you looked around the ground for any signs of a burrow? Could there have been a previous burrow where this fox was born?
Why is the fox doing this? We must know!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Three nights in a row with no screaming outside my window since putting that light up. I didn't realize at the time, but it has a blinking red light to look like a security cam. Not sure if that is actually the main thing having an effect now. Anyway, I don't think it's a coincidence - first time in weeks that I've had this many quiet nights in a row.

 

[DonyaQuick]

To update on this thread: I haven't had a single repeat of the fox screaming at my house since putting out that quite bright motion-activated light out that also has the little red blinking light on it. That's not to say the fox doesn't come round quietly - it might, but the security light was a cure for the screaming part at least. I kind of doubt it's coming round though because there are zero tracks in the area when there's snow/mud that would record it. Only footprints are my dog's - and one pest of a feral cat that I've been dealing with for a year, but that's another matter. At any rate, my dog is also getting trustworthy off the leash now, so if screamy fox comes 'round when I can just throw open the front door or when the dog is already outside...it better get a reaaaaally good head start.

Is your coop and run protected good, where the fox can't get in it?

Yep. My husband calls it "chicken alcatraz" lol. Any fox would have to come with either an axe, tin snips, a lock picking kit to stand much chance.

A mountain lion attacked and almost killed the neighbors horse several years ago.

Those things really are no joke. I'm glad I don't have to deal with them where I currently live. When I was a kid, my family lived in the rockies and I saw one of those stalking me a few times when I was playing outside. My parents didn't believe me until an elderly neighbor was house sitting for us at one point. Darned thing parked itself in front of the main door and waited for her to come out. She did something that scared it off and nothing bad happened, but it was pretty obvious what it was trying to do there.

 

[nuthatched]

Have you called wildlife services? Maybe try putting the trap on something since foxes can jump better than skunks.

 

[Shadrach]

It's probably a Vixen calling for a mate. It should stop when she goes off season.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Last night I heard screamy the fox again...in the distance at a neighbor's house! From the barking and howling that ensued and also traveled, it sounds like those folks may have been bolder than me and just released their dogs to run free after it. There's got to be something wrong with this fox for it to be going to houses that smell of dog when there's a big expanse of un-populated forest where it could surely be doing better. I hope it's not that someone in the area is feeding it or something similar, but now I have to wonder.

 

[Psychofeatherlover]

We have 2 dogs, they are mostly inside, but we have foxes screaming and barking all the time behind the house and beside the house. We heard a coyote one night, sounded like it was in the backyard. I ain't ever moved so fast. I guess I was gonna wrestle it barehanded because I went outside without a gun. I love my flock, and I'd have tried to fight that thing if I'd have had to. Right now, we got la mink, muskrat, or otter in the creek behind the house. My old mans son saw it the other night, but he couldn't tell exactly what it was. I swear I feel like I'm guarding the president sometimes. Standing outside with a gun, listening, and waiting. A mountain lion attacked and almost killed the neighbors horse several years ago. It grabbed him around the neck and started scratching with it's hind legs on the horses belly. The owner and my old man ran out there and it took off. And another neighbor, he lives about 1/4 mile as the crow flies, has found several bear dens on his property and the game land.

 

[Reave]

One of the reasons foxes can seem to be attracted to dogs is that if a fox has denned up nearby, they consider the dogs a threat and want to protect their kits by harassing the dogs until they leave-- unaware, perhaps, that the dogs simply can't choose to leave their own yards (and that many wouldn't, even if they had the choice).

It is often to the fox's detriment, of course, as one slip up will leave them at the mercy of the dogs.

Doesn't seem incredibly likely with your situation, weird time of year when it began, but might help explain why even foxes that haven't been fed by misguided folk sometimes seem attracted to houses with dogs.

Unrelated to this case but interesting, there is also toxoplasmosis, which they catch from wandering or feral cats, which will make them bizarrely docile and tolerant of all sorts of interaction, which is often mistaken for distemper or rabies (and unfortunately for the fox, not worth the risk of trying to make the distinction to the average layperson, as being wrong comes with such a hefty cost).