Something else entirely.
I started back in AD&D, and my first exposure to Kobolds was as 'little dog folk'. I was never really happy with that description, as I figured that Gnolls were plenty canine-folk for one campaign world.
As I started thinking about kobolds, I noticed two things about them. First, Kobolds were almost envariably associated with dungeons containing giant rats. Mostly I think this was accidently. Giant Rats and Kobolds are both good challenges for 1st level foes. Second, Kobolds were the 'vermin' race of the humanoids. I decided to put the two concepts together.
In my campaigns, kobolds are rat-folk - a race which is part of the brood of the cunning hermaphrodite rat deity Sormkurtek. In this view of the world, Kurtulmak is merely Sormkurtek's son - the first born ancestor of the Kobold race and an embodiment of Sormkurtek's nature as a prankster and thief. The kobolds are the vermin race of the world, dwelling amongst the rat brothers stealing baubles, taking food, causing fear, burrowing deep, and spreading disease amongst the 'lesser races' that in thier view of the world only exist to unwittingly serve them.
Even though I wasn't really consciously intending to achieve this goal at the time, I've found this also makes the kobold race a bit darker and brings them back more toward thier faerie roots and less of the 'gully dwarf' species they seem to have almost exclusively become.