D&D General why do we lack a canine race?

[dave2008]

This is pretty surprising to me since it pops up in a lot of other modern fantasy media.

I suspect it's mostly because dog people just haven't been featured in a lot of the fantasy stories that were used as inspiration for the first few iterations of D&D. Also, maybe WotC is made up of cat people instead of dog lovers? Seattle is famously rainy, so it would make sense to favor an indoor pet.

I realize this is probably tongue-in-cheek; but, I just got back from Seattle (where I will be moving to in about a year) and I can confirm there are a lot of dog people there. They were all over the place, and they even allow them to come into most restaurants. I got a chai and sandwich next to a big beautiful newfoundland.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You can find in the SRD the canids as PC specie as one from "Tales of Arcana".

Their smell sense should be really good.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Because of werewolves.

Not even joking. Werewolves take the wind out of the sails for any canine-like race. And you don't have to look far to see this in gaming, either.

Elder Scrolls? No dog-people, but there are werewolves, tied to Hircine, Daedric Prince of the Hunt.
World of Warcraft? I mean, there's fox-people, but the actual canine race...are literally werewolves. They even have a human form.
Eberron has Shifters, but they're only weakly animal-like...and guess what, they canonically get mistaken for werewolves!

Werewolves are simply such a presence that there's really nothing else that can challenge them. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if "werewolf" actually becomes a race in 6e or 7e. WotC is trying to capture the animal-person thing with their new race that I can't remember the name of, but I'm not sure it's gonna stick.

And the thing is, the only other proper canine besides wolves would be dogs, which has...unfortunate implications.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Who's 'we'?

 

[Corinnguard]

And the thing is, the only other proper canine besides wolves would be dogs, which has...unfortunate implications.

Because a race that resembles domestic dogs implies eugenics, which has it's own sordid history in RL.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Because a race that resembles domestic dogs implies eugenics, which has it's own sordid history in RL.

oh, that too! I was more thinking of the implications from dogs being pets and/or service animals.

 

[iserith]

It's to avoid that whole Goofy/Pluto awkwardness.

 

[Mecheon]

And the thing is, the only other proper canine besides wolves would be dogs, which has...unfortunate implications.

You can always go with Anubis-styled folks, which is...

Well okay its -technically- a wolf but folks thought it was a jackal for the longest time

 

[billd91]

Because a race that resembles domestic dogs implies eugenics, which has it's own sordid history in RL.

That doesn't apply to cat people? Tabaxi can look much like domestic cat breeds...

 

[Mind of tempest]

That used to be kobolds.

those were chuhuahuas who are less dogs and more a mix of a hot water bottle and a rotisserie chicken according to my dim understanding of its original breed function, the Mexica triumvirate were strange people.

This is pretty surprising to me since it pops up in a lot of other modern fantasy media.

I suspect it's mostly because dog people just haven't been featured in a lot of the fantasy stories that were used as inspiration for the first few iterations of D&D. Also, maybe WotC is made up of cat people instead of dog lovers? Seattle is famously rainy, so it would make sense to favor an indoor pet.

honestly, I barely see them in anything else unless everyone is a furry but that feels different.
also, how are cats indoor pets?

The snarky answer would be, canine races never appeared in Tolkien, so, they shouldn&t be in D^D

look the modern fantasy race design synthesis is tolkien and anthropomorphic animals in order the explain the endless lizard and cat folk.

D&D had got the lupins.

Lupin

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lupin is a humanoid with a dog-like appearance. Sages believe them to be a result of crossbreeding between humans and gnolls. They are intelligent and productive craftsmen and are friendly towards most races. In the Mystara campaign...

dungeonsdragons.fandom.com

Savage Species had got in the appendix a list of antropomorphic animals.

In the previous decades the players weren't too interested into furry PCs.

Cynocephaly - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The hutaakans are jackal-like heads.

yeah, I forgot the word for the dog-headed men.
why does that dog exist as a musketeer?
why have they not gotten a repeat we get cat folk all the time?

Due to werewolves being the most well-known and populous lycanthrope, Shifters are also I think predominantly thought of as canine. Sure, you can theoretically have ursine and porcine Shifters too, but most of the artwork for them have mainly been wolf-based.

werewolves are a curse like vampires not a people, a lizard could become a werewolf or vampire but is never a dog person.

In PF2, there are the Shoony. Shoony - Ancestries - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Database

why would a dog people ever look like pugs those things have been so messed with that it would just look disturbing to them?