The dog-like traits were already present in English-language D&D before Japanese translations had anything to do with it. Early OD&D was vague about kobolds and basically treated them as small goblin-ish creatures. But by the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual, David C. Sutherland III illustrated them with distinctly canine-looking heads. Gary Gygax later said that this was actually Sutherland's artistic choice; Gygax himself had imagined kobolds as more impish, but accepted Sutherland's dog-like interpretation. And Basic D&D explicitly described kobolds as dog-like. Japanese sources discussing the history quote the old D&D description as essentially a small evil humanoid with a dog-like appearance, while also having scales, horns, no hair, etc.
So the evolution seems to have been roughly:
German folklore kobold → little household/mine spirit ↓ Original D&D → small goblin-like monster ↓ 1970s D&D → scaly little humanoid with horns and a dog-like face ↓ Japanese fantasy/RPGs → “DOG-LIKE? Gotcha. It's a dog person.” ↓ DOGBOLD
Japan really did play a major role in turning the ambiguous D&D dog-lizard thing into the fully furry canine kobold, but it wasn't caused by a typo.
A Japanese retrospective from 4Gamer actually describes essentially this exact progression: early D&D described kobolds with a dog-like head while retaining scales/reptilian characteristics; Japanese works increasingly emphasized the dog part until games such as Wizardry and Sword World had essentially upright dog people. Another Japanese history similarly credits D&D's dog-headed description and Wizardry with cementing the canine interpretation.
Then D&D itself went hard in the opposite direction. Third Edition in 2000 redesigned kobolds to be explicitly reptilian/draconic, which is the ancestry of the modern 'little dragon' kobold.
Though I'm curious as to if you know what Japanese edition, what was typo'd, and what it was saying/supposed to say?
That's actually a myth. The dog-like traits were already present in English-language D&D before Jap
Ah, the classic Kobold Conundrum. Similar to the greenskin orc and piggy orc debacle. I actually like both kinds of kobold. I remember an rpg series where they had a race of furry creatures that live in mines and for some reason they were called Dwarves for some damned reason. Class of Heroes I think.
Ah, the classic Kobold Conundrum. Similar to the greenskin orc and piggy orc debacle. I actually lik
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