Bronze inscriptions already show 狗 built from 犬, “dog”, plus 句 as a sound clue. The form is therefore a sound-and-meaning character: the animal component tells you the category, while 句 points toward the historical pronunciation. Scholars describe 狗 as an early word for a dog, possibly emerging as a regional spoken form beside 犬. This component sketch follows the attested structure instead of inventing a dog-shaped oracle pictograph.
A piece of culture
From ancient 犬 to everyday 狗 犬 is the older, more literary character for “dog”; 狗 is the ordinary word you will hear in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Dog is also the eleventh animal of the Chinese zodiac, so 狗年 means “Year of the Dog”: gǒunián in Mandarin and gau2 nin4 in Cantonese. One everyday pet word thus opens a door to the traditional calendar too.