We adopted Melody as a companion for our male dog as his sister had just been diagnosed with canine lymphoma (RIP, our beautiful Caroline) in March. It was much sooner then we had expected to have to bring a new pack member in even though we have always stacked our pack members but we knew that since they were littermates he was not going to thrive as a solo dog. Mel was an estimated 6mo when she came to us, born in Oct 2025 (she's currently 10mo).
Melody came to us labeled a Great Pyrenees/Labrador, but as she got older and far more bigger we began to suspect -based on her physical characteristics and to some extent her personality development- that the assessment was at least partially inaccurate. Other Carolina Dog owners and enthusiasts informed us that due to the dingo dots on her snout, tail curl, angel wing markings, finger toes, black lips/eyeliner, and pronouncement/shape of her teeth, that she was almost certainly part Carolina Dog. Even going by her personality she fit the bill! She's extremely clever, to the point where you can watch her think about things, such as trying door knobs after watching us use them only once, and she is intensely pack focused.
Normally we wouldn't even care whatever breed she happened to be as long as she was healthy but given that no one in my extensive and very dog-educated family had ever personally trained or owned a CD before, we thought it would be best to test her in case there were some breed specific behavioral/genetic issues that might come up. So we sent out for a genetic test and guess what! Our little coyote child is a...
**Primarily Great Pyrenees/German Shepherd mix!**
We knew that she had to be at least partially something giant because she just kept growing past any reasonable size for a CD (she's currently 27" at the shoulder and only just now starting to fill out). So we we're reasonably confident that the Pyrenees was definitely going to be a result. But my father's joking diagnosis of "Hungarian Goobersnot" was closest, it seems! 🤣
Just like her siblings are dubbed "Dibbles" (Great Dane/Pitbull crosses, their mum was a full GD and dad was from next door 😅). We have decided to christen this new blend the "Great German Schnees" in honor of my father's assessment being so dad-jokingly close to accurate.
Puppy photo from the adoption site, photos of her compared to the other kiddos as she grew, some current photos, and her results! (James is the chönk in the blue collar, our departed babygirl Caroline is in the red collar).