Carolina Dog

They have the general appearance of a jackal or wolf. Carolina dogs are descended from the canines that accompanied the Paleo-Indians who traveled from Asia to North America over the Bering land bridge. Today, they can still be found living wild near the Georgia-South Carolina border, but have also been seen as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania and as far west as Arizona; rural areas are the common denominator.

When primitive humans migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia into North America, they brought with them a primitive form of dog that were domesticated from Asian wolves thousands of years earlier. Skeletal and mummified remains of these dogs have been discovered alongside other artifacts belonging to the Southwest Indians and from there, they moved further into Central and South America and over to the eastern United States. Archaeologists discovered similar canine remains in ceremonial burials in the southeastern forests, denoting their companionship with Native Americans long before Europeans arrived.

Recent studies of free-ranging dogs of the Southeast and Southwest suggest a close ancestry and possible descent from these primitive companions based on appearance, behavior, and ecology. These free-ranging dogs were named Carolina Dogs by Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin, who initially made contact with the breed in the Southeast.