Guard Dog (2004, animation, dark comedy) is a short film (TRT 05:00 min.) which was hand-drawn and produced by Independent Animator Bill Plympton at his Plymptoons Studio. In 2005 the film was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 77th Annual Academy Awards held in 2005 and produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Also in 2005 Guard Dog won Best Animated Short at Toronto World of Comedy International Film Festival, and won a Special Jury Mention for Animated Stories at ANIMA - Córdoba International Animation Festival. This film marked the second Academy Award nomination for Plympton, his first being the animated short Your Face at the 60th Academy Awards.

The film is a humorous and surreally-violent answer to the question "Why do dogs bark at such innocent creatures as pigeons and squirrels?" and gives the audience a window into the paranoid mind of a loyal guard dog as it imagines farcically depicted dangers, from harmless flora and fauna on a walk through a neighborhood park. Each potential threat, from flower, butterfly, and grasshopper, to bird, squirrel, and rope-jumping girl, is treated to its own improbable and often bloody vignette.

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris or Canis familiaris) is a domesticated canid which has been selectively bred for millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes.

Although initially thought to have originated as a manmade variant of an extant canid species (variously supposed as being the dhole,golden jackal, or gray wolf), extensive genetic studies undertaken during the 2010s indicate that dogs diverged from an extinct wolf-like canid in Eurasia 40,000 years ago. Being the oldest domesticated animal, their long association with people has allowed dogs to be uniquely attuned to human behavior, as well as thrive on a starch-rich diet which would be inadequate for other canid species.

Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This impact on human society has given them the nickname "man's best friend" in the Western world. In some cultures, however, dogs are a source of meat.

Dogū (土偶)(meaning "clay figures") are small humanoid and animal figurines made during the late Jōmon period (14,000–400 BC) of prehistoric Japan. Dogū come exclusively from the Jōmon period. By the Yayoi period, which followed the Jōmon period, Dogū were no longer made. There are various styles of Dogū, depending on exhumation area and time period. According to the National Museum of Japanese History, the total number found throughout Japan is approximately 15,000. Dogū were made across all of Japan, except Okinawa. Most of the Dogū have been found in eastern Japan and it is rare to find one in western Japan. The purpose of the Dogū remains unknown and should not be confused with the clay haniwa funerary objects of the Kofun period (250 – 538).

Origins

Some scholars theorize the Dogū acted as effigies of people, that manifested some kind of sympathetic magic. For example, it may have been believed that illnesses could be transferred into the Dogū, then destroyed, clearing the illness, or any other misfortune.

The Dog (狗) is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dog is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 戌. The character 狗 refers to the actual animal while 戌 refers to the zodiac animal.

Years and the Five Elements

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Dog", while also bearing the following elemental sign:

Basic astrology elements

See also

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References