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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. 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.
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.
The UKC has classifed them as a Pariah dog, a class which includes other primitive breeds such as the Basenji of Africa and the Thai Ridgeback. The type designations "Pariah" and "Primitive" are commonly used interchangeably in cynology.
Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., a Senior Research Ecologist at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Lab, first came across a Carolina Dog while working at the Savannah River site. Horace, a stray white dog with brown markings, was wandering the site’s boundary when he caught Brisbin’s attention. Brisbin, who had seen many rural dogs chained to the back of porches and doghouses, assumed this was just a normal stray. Many of these dogs roamed the woods and would turn up in humane traps, and Brisbin began to wonder how many more of these were in the wild. On a hunch, he went to the pound and was surprised by the resemblance the dog had to dingoes.
In the 1980s, most Carolina Dogs were removed to captivity for study. Female dogs had three estrus cycles in quick succession, which settled into seasonal reproductive cycles when there was an abundance of puppies. Brisbin noted that this was most likely to ensure quick breeding before diseases, like heartworm, take their toll. Some pregnant dogs also dug dens in which to give birth. After they gave birth or while pregnant, the bitch would carefully push sand with her snout to cover her excrement. The dogs also dug “snout pits”, or hundreds of tiny holes in the dirt that perfectly fit their muzzles during this time. More bitches dug them than males.
The pack dynamic was unique. When hunting, Carolina Dogs used an effective pack formation. They used a whip-like motion when hunting snakes. In the wild, Carolina dogs live in swampy, sparsely settled land instead of the highly populated areas stray dogs commonly occupied.
The preliminary DNA testing may provide a link between primitive dogs and Carolina Dogs. Brisbin stated, “We grabbed them out of the woods based on what they look like, and if they were just dogs their DNA patterns should be well distributed throughout the canine family tree. But they aren't. They're all at the base of the tree, where you would find very primitive dogs.” This wasn’t conclusive, but it did spark interest into more extensive DNA testing.
Carolina Dogs can be registered with the American Rare Breed
Association and the United Kennel Club.[9] ARBA includes the breed in its "Spitz and Primitive Group", which includes primitives such as the dingo and Canaan Dog. 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.
The word pariah is derived from a Tamil word first used in English in 1613, to refer to the lowest level of the traditional Indian caste system; in English, it is used to mean "a social outcast". The Indian feral dog was considered an outcast as well. The term "pariah" when referring to feral or wild dogs of the Indian feral dog type is sometimes replaced with primitive, in the sense of "relating to an earliest or original stage or state" or "being little evolved from an early ancestral type". It is assumed that dogs placed in "pariah" or "primitive" groups are of an older type than other modern dog breeds. Future genetic testing may show the actual heredity of these breeds or types.
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