‘They’re everywhere.’ Saugus on edge after coyotes attack small dogs.

In recent weeks, such precautions have become increasingly common in this town north of Boston, where tense coyote encounters have seen an uptick in recent weeks.

Saugus official issued an advisory earlier this month warning residents to be on the lookout for coyotes after “multiple reports of confrontations involving coyotes and small dogs.”

Multiple members of a public Facebook group for dog owners in Saugus have posted reports of close encounters between coyotes and their pets in recent weeks, usually after dusk, including one woman who said a coyote entered her yard late one night in September and attacked her dog as she was standing next to him.

Debra Panetta, chairman of the Saugus select board, said she had her own close call with a coyote that followed her as she was walking one of her two huskies last month. A second coyote appeared in front of her.

“I didn’t know how I was going to get home,” she said in a phone interview Thursday. She said she screamed and “made a lot of noise” to drive the coyotes away. “It’s a scary thing,” she said.

Panetta said her husband also spotted a coyote while walking their dogs Wednesday night.

It’s not clear how many coyotes attacks have taken place in Saugus or if any dogs have been killed. Saugus’s animal control officer, Darren McCullough, declined to comment, and Town Manager Scott Crabtree did not return messages seeking comment. The Saugus Police Department also declined to comment.

Macy Calef, 26, is a dog walker from Woburn who has clients in Saugus and other towns north of Boston. She said her customers in Wakefield, Melrose, and North Reading have told her they’re concerned about the presence of coyotes.

“Especially in North Reading, I won’t walk dogs past dark up there,” she said. “They’re everywhere. It’s definitely become a problem.”

Meghan Crawford, a community engagement biologist with MassWildlife, said coyotes are out and about year-round across New England, but increased sightings are common in the fall, which she called “dispersal season.” That’s when coyote pups born in the spring begin to venture out on their own.

“Those young are starting to go out and try to find their own space, and so during this time we tend to get an increase in calls about coyote sightings and concerns,” Crawford said.

She said the coyote population this year is standard compared to years past.

“The reality is there hasn’t been a change in the number of coyotes out there,” she said. “Their visibility has just increased.”

Coyotes are “opportunistic omnivores,” meaning they’ll eat pretty much anything they can, Crawford said. They’ll often consume plant material like nuts and berries, but they’ll also go after food sources found in backyards, like bird feeders and compost piles.

Saugus officials, in their advisory, urged residents to remove bird feeders and secure trash bins to avoid attracting coyotes. Officials said residents should not feed their pets outside.

“It is very unfortunate, but the truth is that coyotes will look at unsupervised cats and small dogs as potential food sources,” Crawford said. “They can’t really differentiate between, say, an outdoor unsupervised cat and any other food sources, things like rabbits, rodents, and the like.”

Crawford always accompanies her 40-pound Beagle mix outside and recommends other pet owners do the same, regardless of the pet’s size.

“Medium and large size dogs aren’t off the hook,” she said. “They could be viewed as potential threats to territory or mates.”

A fence isn’t always enough to keep coyotes out of yards. Crawford said a 6-foot fence is generally good, but coyotes can also dig beneath them. And during the winter, a foot of snow will turn that 6-foot fence into a 5-foot fence, short enough for a coyote to climb over.

Coyotes tend to be most aggressive during mating season, which begins in January and is also a time of increased sightings and encounters, Crawford said.

MassWildlife has a list of tips for how to keep coyotes away and what to do if you encounter one. The department encourages “hazing” the coyote by moving toward them while waving your arms and clapping or yelling. They also recommend using an air horn or whistle to scare them off, spraying water at them with a hose, or throwing small objects like a tennis ball in their direction.

“You want to frighten them,” she said. “You want to remind them that they should be cautious around people and cautious around our homes. And that’s good for the coyote, that’s the way that they talk with each other and how they defend their territory among each other. So we’ve just got to speak coyote.”

Two years ago, when the town of Nahant was dealing with a growing coyote presence, town officials authorized an agreement with the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services that allowed agency officials to shoot and kill coyotes.

Panetta, the select board chair in Saugus, said she has heard no such plans being discussed in her town.

“The discussion is about living and coexisting with these creatures,” she said.

Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Auzzy Byrdsell can be reached at austin.byrdsell@globe.com.