Hi, Trevor!
To reduce confusion, you might consider referring to these as "painted dogs," which is how the San Diego Zoo lists them. The
Wikipedia entry mentions that as one of several other names. Their range is now fragmented, but this species is still found in many more African countries than just Tanzania (where my zoologist sister did her post-doc work on gazelles, BTW).
In this stanza, "where" made no sense until I realized you probably mean "in which":
They grasp at a dipping rump,
the hairy tip of a frantic tail,
enduring through the kind of pursuit
where other species wane.
I agree that the description of the dogs' activities currently feels more prose-like than like poem-like. That has nothing to do with the lack of rhyme and meter, and everything to do with the lack of a poetic point of view that makes the reader feel they are experiencing and discovering something beyond the surface level of the words. If you would like to change that, an interesting metaphor or simile about the striking patterns of these dogs' colorful coats might be a good place to start.
Hyenas are actually more closely related to cats than to dogs. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyena