After typing this I spotted some wings on these dog or dragons? … so now not sure … let me know what you think ?
These granite dogs are the guardians of a Chinese Pagoda which acts as a rest area in the lower Big Buddha hill area. There’s a particularly vicious looking pup with one of the dogs. Maybe it’s a family, dog dog, bitch dog and pup dog ?
The other guardians are dragon and a crane bird (behind). I have a wider angle photo I’ll post later.
(c) Don Charisma, photos taken in Thailand Nov-2013
Don Charisma 
This is a very common mythological creature in East Asian cultures. Somebody call it the Chinese unicorns. In Japan it’s called Kirin (a beer brewer takes its name after this creature). In East Asia, we worship it together with dragon, phoenix, turtle. FYI: 😀
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin
That’s awesome, sometimes I just don’t know how to describe things … So these are “Qilin” ? cheers DC
So mean looking. Much too ugly to be dogs, so they must be dragons. Dogs are soft and cuddly, and a nice brown, black, white, or combination of those colors. I know, I know, these are supposed to be protecting Buddha, but even Buddha would want a cuter dog.
OK, so we think they are dragons, I only spotted the wings after I’d done the post, doh !
That’s okay. It takes a dog lover to know those couldn’t possibly be dogs. Not even Dobermans or pissed off pit bulls.
I have now a resident Asian expert and he says they are Qilin – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin
I’d say they are modelled around dogs too 🙂