Footsteps in McDonald County, Missouri

It was a dark night and I heard the dogs all barking from their cages, which was not that unusual as they would do this whenever a coyote would come close or a car would drive by. I grabbed my flashlight and turned on the back motion light and went outside with my .22 mag revolver thinking a coyote had stirred them. I hollered at the dogs to hush and they would not at first, but eventually did. It was at this time that I heard something walking in the woods behind the house that sounded as though it was on two legs. I then assumed that it had to be a person and called out asking if anyone was there. Immediately afterwards the walking stopped and I called out again as I began walking towards this little dirt road that separated our back yard from the woods. At this point it sounded as though the footsteps were coming towards me. Not wanting to shoot someone accidentally and still wanting to be safe I went back to the dog kennel and let out our red heeler who I add is usually fearless. I told her come "come" and began walking back towards the woods, the dog ran up to the treeline ears pointing up and alert and immediately ran back to her cage. I have never seen that dog back down from anything before or since so I yelled out one more time for whoever was out there that I was armed and to leave now. I heard the footsteps coming towards me again and the time in between audible steps indicated that whatever it was was very tall, at least seven or more feet. I then proceeded to fire two shots at the ground right in front of the woodline and whatever it was calmly began to walk away as though it was not afraid at all. I then put the dog up and went inside the house and have never had any further experiences.