The Carolina Dog, oldest breed in North America today, originated more than 10,000 years ago in East Asia

The Carolina Dog (Swamp Dog, Native Dog, Old Yeller Dog, Ol’ Yaller, Yellow Dog, Native American Dog, Southern Aboriginal Dog) or American Dingo (American Pariah, American Pariah Dog, Dixie Dingo, Southern Dingo) is an ancient landrace dog or a pariah dog that originated more than 10.000 years ago in East Asia.

According to some DNA studies, this breed is actually a direct descendant of the original Asian Pariah Dogs, whose ancestors were the Asian wolves. So, this is definitely one of the oldest and most primitive dogs in the world. Based on its appearance, many experts believed that the American Pariah is the close relative of the Australian Dingo and the New Guinea Singing Dog, but a new study of this breed’s mDNA haplotypes confirmed that there is no direct genetic relationship between them.

However, another, more recent genetic study confirmed that the breed definitely originated in East Asia, so there’s still a possibility that these three landraces are somehow related. With all that being said, you probably wonder, how this breed ended up in the North America then? Well, this happened some 8.000 years ago when the primitive Paleolithic men reached America through the Bearing Strait crossing. Their pariah dogs accompanied them at this long and perilous journey that led them through West America all the way down to the Southeast of the continent. The American Dingo is actually the direct descendant of these dogs, together with the Basketmaker Dog and the Kentucky Shell Heap Dog, which are now extinct unfortunately.