I had pegged Jane as a shepherd mix, but Jason P. said he thought she looked like a Carolina dog. I looked up Carolina dogs online and in my dog book and he's right, she does look a lot like one! Not exactly the same: she's a bit too big; her tail lies down; and Carolina dogs have dark brown eyes and yellow coats, while Jane has amber eyes and a black & tan (actually black & yellow) coat.
Still, she looks more like a Carolina dog than like anything else I've seen. I wonder if she's a mix of Carolina dog with a bit of German shepherd. I've been saying that she must be a mix of shepherd and "something skinny and yellow." Which does describe the Carolina dog. The description of their temperament also sounds a lot like her, but that could just as easily be from whatever conditioning she learned in the first five years of her life.
I'm very happy to think that she might be mainly Carolina dog, aka American Dingo. It's a "pariah breed," only partly domesticated, indigenous to the Southeast. Because they're feral and were never bred by humans until very recently, they lack the kind of genetic defects that are introduced into popular breeds by irresponsible breeding. (Which is yet another reason why I've only owned rescue mix breeds. But don't get me started on that one.)
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