Have never run into this in my years of hunting personally but have talked to few other who have had encounters with Varmints and their bird dog(s). Last year a guy told me his dog got into a scrap with a coyote. Said he came out unharmed but could have easily been worse. I have also never seen or ran into a porcupine in SW MN but I'm sure they exist. Anybody else ever had a dog come toe to toe with a coyote, raccoon, or get quilled by a porcupine? a few years ago I did kick up a coyote in the distance and it sprinted a country mile out of sight (dog never even seen it). A friend of mine sees coyote continuously on his bird hunts in south Dakota. Some of these are my worst fear of injuring my dog and ending a weekend of hunting to head strait to the vet.