Carolina Dog

Carolina Dog / American Dingo

The Carolina Dog is a wild dog recently discovered living in isolated stretches of longleaf pines and cypress swamps in the American Southeast. Physical and behavioral characteristics of this dog suggest that it may not be closely related to modern American domestic dogs; controversy on this point will probably be resolved by genetic research. Preliminary DNA testing indicates that Carolina Dog samples cluster at the base of the domestic dog family tree, where the most primitive dog types are found. The Carolina Dog may be more closely related to the Dingo than to the descendants of stray or feral dogs originally imported from Europe.

Carolina Dog / American Dingo

Some experts hypothesize that the ancestors of the Carolina Dog may have migrated with humans across the Bering Strait land bridge, due to the current survival of a strain of seemingly-indistinguishable dogs native to Korea known as the Jindo. Paintings of Native Americans made by early European explorers show them accompanied by dogs which are strikingly similar to the Carolina Dog. Their ancestors would then have split off at some indeterminate time in the past, and been mostly isolated from dogs used by Native Americans and later, the Europeans.

Carolina Dog / American Dingo

Carolina Dogs can be registered with the American Rare Breed Association and the United Kennel Club. ARBA includes the breed in its "Spitz and Primitive Group," which includes primitives such as the Dingo and Canaan Dog. 1] The UKC has classified them as a pariah dog, a class which includes other primitive breeds such as the Basenji of Africa and the Thai Ridgeback.2] The type designations "pariah" and "primitive" are commonly used interchangeably in cynology.