Writer, Cy Brown, calls the Carolina Dog “the most Southern dog alive;” Its ancient ancestors crossed North America from the Bering Strait to settle on the border of Georgia and South Carolina, and specifically, in a 310 square mile area that would come to be managed by the Department of Energy and closed to the public. The remoteness of this area allowed the dogs to remain largely undetected and/or unnoticed by humans until .
A handsome breed, the Carolina Dog (also called “America’s natural dog”) is also among the most unique for its behaviors, one of which is an activity that can leave a backyard looking like its been overrun by gophers. Take a look (and be sure to turn up the sound):
What this dog is doing is creating a “snout pit.” There is no definitive explanation (that we’ve found) to explain the behavior. There’s no evidence that the dogs are eating something at the bottom of the pit, like insects or a mineral, but it has been observed that 98% of females create these depressions in the dirt between September and January leading to speculation that its a hormone/pregnancy related activity.
Carolina dogs also use their snouts, not their back feet, to bury their waste by covering it with sand. It’s a highly ritualized behavior: The dogs circle the pile of feces, and as they do, they push sand on top of it with their noses. It’s a perfect circle, and the pile is covered completely.
Very cool.
I’ve had Carolina Dogs since the 60’s, long before they were given that name, and met the breed’s “founder”(or re-discoverer), Dr. I. Lehr Brisbin, in the mid 80’s, when he was working for the SREL and UGA. I have kept up with the information on this unique breed/landrace and still have several Carolina Dogs. The snout pit behavior is fascinating, sometimes exasperating, as it is very easy to step into these conical pits and twist an ankle; I’ve often joked that perhaps that is their real intent, to trap wild game by breaking their legs. The dogs ARE eating something in their snout pits, though we don’t know what it is. They will dig several “test pits” that are rejected, then finally settle on one that is perfect and munch away at something. Why some pits are abandoned and rejected while others are apparently perfect is a mystery. It is NOT hormonal, though, since I have observed spayed females engaging in this behavior, too, and it is largely limited to fall and winter. Again, we don’t know why. Some males dig snout pits, though, not just females, though covering the droppings with the nose is almost exclusive to females that are either in season or nursing puppies. They can be almost obsessive about it, to the extent that they will rub their noses raw while covering their droppings, and can create some very noticeable “earthworks” that would impress the guys that made Stonehenge. One correction to the above article is needed, though. The Carolina Dog’s natural range is not limited to the property of the SREL, or even to the Southeast. Carolina Dog populations still exist across the entire southern tier of states, from FL to California, and are most numerous in areas that either still have or have recently had Native American populations. The term “Carolina” was once used to describe much of the southern colonial portion of what became the US, and the name was given to the dogs to reflect this. Just as “Virginia Opossums” and “Virginia White-Tailed Deer” and formerly, “Florida Panthers”, aren’t limited to the boundaries of those states, either are the Carolina Dogs limited to the Carolinas. I have included a photo of “Hector”, one of my Carolina Dogs, who was wild-caught as a puppy in Texas.
Very interesting about this snout pit digging. I have a spayed female that does this until her snout is raw. Is there a way to stop this behavior? If I put an ointment on her nose she will lick it constantly until it is gone. I feel horrible that she gets this way and I can’t do any thing about it.
Karen, your question is a good one, and honestly, we don’t know the answer – BUT – we can ask it of other Carolina Dog owners (we JUST talked to a few at a big dog show in Orlando) and wish we’d known to ask it then. We ask for your patience, and if you’d like to see what kind of response we get, you can follow along on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NationalPurebredDogDay/) when we post the question tomorrow.
Thank you.
I don’t have Facebook.
We’ll share here anything we find out, Karen, no worries.
I just caught a wild puppy out at a factory that was surrounded by almond orchards. The pup was howling one morning about 20 ft down in a ponding basin. It sounded like a baby coyote so I jokingly called to it, “come here pup here pup”. And in like 5 minutes here came this little puppy, and a co- worker said ” there it is Dave , grab it! So as I reached to grab the dog it bolted, and because of the dust on it it looked like a coyote. So the puppy ran under a pallet full of steel and knowing it would be rough to get it out if it went under the pallet, I grabbed him and he bit me, seeing its a little red puppy dog , we trapped it in a steel tube with only one way out, so I grabbed it trying to get out and it bit me again! Drawing blood but I still held on to it, but it did keep biting until I hugged it in a way as to not get bitten. I am glad I had a welding jacket on! It was about 10 weeks old then, but now he is looking like a Carolina dog with all the traits. I did the phone app and it did come back with a 93 percent match for Carolina dog. Is ginger with a shoulder blaze white tips curled tail snout pits big feet. I can send pictures