Who Is the Dog’s Enemy? – Dog Idioms

Last week we spoke about cat-related idioms, so now it is time to check out expressions with another extremely popular pet – the dog. Linguistically, cats are often portrayed in a negative light. Then, how about dogs?

Dogs are our friends, but they certainly cannot understand what human culture is all about. This feeling is captured in the phrase 犬に論語 inu ni rongo, which literally means ‘(to read) the Analects of Confucius to a dog’. If you actually did that, you would just waste your breath as the dog would not understand what you are saying. Thus, more generally, this dog-related idiom means that it is pointless to try to explain something to somebody who will simply not understand, regardless of how one explains it.

Another convenient characteristic of many dogs is that they are not picky. If they do not want something, it must be really awful. The idiom 犬も食わない inu mo kuwanai means ‘even a dog would not eat it’. This expression stresses that something really must be disliked, and it does not necessarily have to be food.

Western countries tend to consider cats to be the sworn enemies of dogs, but in Japan it is… monkeys. The phrase 犬と猿 inu to saru, ‘dog and monkey’, is a typical phrase to describe a bad relationship.

Japan’s image of dogs, as expressed in such idioms, seems to be simpler, less cunning than its image of cats. There is some truth to it perhaps, but they remain our beloved friends anyway.

Written by AL