Chinese guardian lions However, Chinese reference to the guardian lions are seldom prefixed with 佛 or 福, and more importantly never referred to as "dogs". Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the Japanese reference to them as "Korean dogs" (狛犬・高麗犬) due to their transmission from China through Korea into Japan. It may also be due to the misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the Chow Chow (鬆獅犬, Pinyin: sōngshī quǎn, lit. "puffy-lion dog") or Pekingese (獅子狗; Pinyin: Shīzi Gǒu, lit. "lion dog"). The lions are traditionally carved from
Lad, A Dog One core theme of "Lad: A Dog" is the obtaining of perfect obedience without the use of force. Through the story characters' attempts at explaining Lad's inexplicable actions using "mythologies of atavism", Terhune reflects his own views of an ideal relationship between a parent and child, namely an "ideology of noble instinct tempered by inflexible training". An unknown third-person narrator also reflects Terhune's perspective and values regarding violence, which is both repelled and embraced. Reflecting patriarchy and the idea of a living creature that obeys unquestioningly and unhesitatingly, the novel indicates that "perfect obedience and submission to a master's will"