Dag

""Meaner, meaner!" Meaners gotta eat too."

- Dag scaring the hens.

Dag is the main antagonist of Nickelodeon's 8th animated feature film, Barnyard, despite his role being small. He is Otis's arch-nemesis and the coyotes' former leader and boss.

He was voiced by David Koechner who later portrayed Chet.

Role
Although he is the main antagonist, he has little screen time. He nearly steals a few of the hens, only to be stopped by Otis's foster father, Ben. He had sacrificed himself to save the hens and succumbed from his injuries after his fight with Dag.

Later, Ben's adoptive son Otis tries to take vengeance on Dag, but he lost his burst of courage as soon as the coyotes noticed him. Dag sadistically shames Otis by telling him that things would have been different if he was there for Ben. He then makes a "deal" with Otis, telling him that he will only steal a few animals each night, but if he tried to do something about it, he and his pack would slaughter every animal in sight, possibly including the farmer. In the morning, Otis decided to leave the barnyard, realizing that he had no chance.

However, the next morning, Otis was informed that the coyotes took all the hens and his chick friend, Maddy, making Otis realize that Dag double-crossed him, since he wasn't expecting him and the coyotes until tonight. Otis then went off to the junkyard to rescue the chickens.

Otis arrives at the junkyard just in time to prevent Dag from devouring Maddy, but Dag's goons easily overpower him. Fortunately, Miles the mule, Pip the mouse, Freddie the ferret, Peck the rooster, Pig the pig, and the Jersey Cows arrive to help Otis and Dag's goons were easily defeated.

Eventually, Dag tries a sneak attack on Otis similarly to how he overpowered Ben, but Otis was warned by Peck, who successfully did a loud crow. Otis caught Dag by the throat, hit his head against a bus window and threatened to punch him, like his father did; but instead, Otis told Dag to never come back and the coyote agrees. Dag was hit with a golf club by Otis and he soars out into the distance while howling in pain.

It is unknown what happened to Dag afterwards, but he and the other coyotes are most likely dead, injured, or they in a place where they found food.

Dag didn't return in any episode of Back at the Barnyard, but he was seen in several games.

Personality
Dag is greedy, violent, sadistic, murderous, hedonistic, parsimonious, ruthless, and lazy. However, unlike many villains, whereas they are motivated by greed or power, he and his coyotes only want food. However, it is important to note that while they steal hens on a regular basis, Dag remains notably thin, so much that anyone can see his ribcage. This could either be a medical condition or he only kills for fun.

Dag is also seemingly slanderous, egotistical, and manipulative, so he enjoys to torment his victims, this was shown at the hen house where he revealed to them he keeps the severed legs of his meals and threatens one of them. This also passes onto at the junkyard where he came close to devouring Maddy simply because she called him a "meaner". Otis was his archenemy and in turn Dag took great delight in saying that he should have helped his deceased father, Ben.

Throughout the film, Dag proves he is not above underhanded tactics to win a fight this was shown when he attacked both Ben and Otis in their legs when they were distracted by his coyotes. This also shows at the junkyard when he was planning to attack Otis from above the top of a bus. Dag is also very abusive, insulting, opprobrious, argumentative, and uncomplimentary, describing both the cows as "fat".

If his back is against a wall, Dag can also be very cowardly, worthless, inadequate, pusillanimous, and discombobulated whenever Ben and Otis threatened to punch him and he quivered, which made both cows spare him.

Appearance
Dag is a scrawny red coyote with sharp fangs and claws. He has a slight scar on his left eye and two notches on his left ear. He is extremely skinny with his ribcages still visible.

Trivia

 * He is very similar to Scar from Disney's 1994 animated film, The Lion King, as they have both killed a clan leader that happened to be the protagonist's (Simba and Otis) father (Mufasa and Ben), they knew said leader from the past and they have a scar on their eye. As well, they did the same thing to the protagonist that they have to kill their respective fathers: Scar jugged his claws on Mufasa and Simba's paws and Dag bit Ben and Otis's leg. And not only that, but they are also Complete Monsters, are rather scrawny compared to the other characters in their movies, are leaders of a pack of canines (Scar being the boss of the hyenas and Dag being the boss of his pack), were ordered by the protagonist to never return after they were defeated by them. They are also both Complete Monsters and Cowards.
 * He is also very similar to Black Wolf 2008 computer-animated film, The Flight Before Christmas.
 * Both of them are complete monsters, canine villains, and totally bent on the destruction of other animals, only in Dag's case, it's the animals and the farmer whereas in Black Wolf's case, it is the reindeer and Santa. They are also both the leaders of their packs.
 * He is also very similar to Koba from the Planet of the Apes reboot series.
 * Both are animals (Coyote/Bonobo ape) who have scars on their faces, are Complete Monsters, and they try to kill a clan leader (Caesar/Ben, however Dag actually succeeded, but was defeated by his foster son and successor, Otis).
 * He is also very similar to Sabor from Disney's 1999 animated film, Tarzan.
 * Both are predatory animals (Coyote/Leopard) who killed the protagonist's parents and are later defeated by the protagonists and thus the parents they killed are avenged.
 * He is also very similar to Soto From 20th Century Fox's 2002 computer-animated film, Ice Age.
 * Both are the Leaders (Dag is the leader of the coyote pack and Soto is the leader of the sabertooth tiger pack). Both are dangerous animals (Coyote/Sabertooth Tiger). Both trying to kill the protagonist (Dag want to kill Otis/Soto want to kill Roshan and Manny) and to eat their victims (Hens in the Dag's case/Humans in the Soto's case). but didn't get and they are defeat by the protagonist (Dag is defeat by Otis strike him with golf club and Soto is defeat by Manny flinging him into a stone wall and is murdered by the sharp icicles and fall into him).
 * At one point in the film, Dag claims his favorite part of the chicken to be the skin.
 * When the coyote pack invade the chicken coop to steal hens, Dag reveals that he keeps the devoured hen's feet to use as key chains and shows this to the hen's to frighten them.
 * Dag looks similar to Wile E. Coyote from the Looney Tunes franchise.
 * Despite "Dag" being a Scandinavian name, Slavic countries (including Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Poland) kind of fit him better.
 * His alias being "Lady Killer" is also a reference to the infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy.
 * Dag can be seen drooling in the scene where he says "I love chicken".