Lauren Fujimoto
Jul 16, 2026, 3:01 PM
Small win to share: we've officially got our morning walk dialed in. We used to do the Jeffrey Open Space Trail right at dawn and kept crossing paths with the same coyote near the Trabuco entrance, which made my kid nervous and made our terrier mix, Miso, lose his mind. Switched to leaving about 45 minutes later once there's real foot traffic, kept Miso on a 6-foot leash instead of the flexi, and it's been totally uneventful for a few weeks now. The coyote's clearly still around, we just aren't overlapping anymore, and honestly that feels like the whole game to me — a little timing and a short leash and everyone gets their space.
Linh Kaur
Jul 16, 2026, 3:01 PM
The flexi-leash swap is underrated — I made the same change on the Serrano Creek trail here in Lake Forest and it's night and day, you actually have your dog close enough to react. Miso's a lucky guy.
Jessica Choi
Jul 16, 2026, 3:01 PM
This is helpful, thank you. Timing is the part I struggle with because our school drop-off puts us on the trail at exactly the wrong hour — did you ever have a plan for the mornings when you couldn't push the walk later, or is it just staying on the busier stretch?
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