Carolina Dog Profile

Carolina Dog Stats

Country of Origin: United States.

Group: Sighthounds and Pariahs (United Kennel Club); Spitz and Primitive(American Rare Breed Association)

Use today: Pets, guard dog

Life Span: 12 to 14 years.

Color: Light cream to deep red ginger, black and tan, or cream with large spots of red, tan or black.

Coat: Short and dense with coarse, longer hair on the neck, withers, and back.

Grooming: Brush weekly.

Height: 17 to 24 inches.

Weight: 40 to 60 pounds.

Carolina Dog Profile

Several types of feral dogs with long, immense ears lived some 8,000 years ago in what is today the United States.

The Basketmaker Dog, now extinct, was nearly a clone of the Dingo and was used by primitive Indians in the Southeast. Also lost is the Kentucky Shell Heap Dog, named for where its fossils were found. In the Deep South, yet another form of this ancient pariah lives on.

Now called the Carolina Dog, because the last remaining specimens were found there, the breed is closely related, or perhaps identical to the other, now extinct, North American pariah breeds. Indians, the first explorers and early settlers in the South recognized the Carolina Dog.

Like the Dingo and pariahs before them, this breed has strong herding instincts. It is probable that the Carolina Dog, crossed with European hounds and other stocks, was an ancestor of the American cur breeds. The Carolina Dog is often referred to as “Old Yeller” because of its yellow color.

Carolina Dogs generally range between 30 and 40 pounds and stand 22 inches at the withers.

They could almost pass for the larger Dingo with its wedged head, broad, pointed ears, light-boned, unexaggerated body, and scimitar-shaped tail. Carolinas can be domesticated but, like so many pariah dogs, they have very strong flight reflexes.

When they are socialized at an early age, Carolina Dogs make fine, well-adjusted pets. If they don’t receive proper handling when young, they tend to be shy and to dislike being touched or petted.