Someone came up with the idea that 'wild dogs' looks like the Mexican stereotype in a sombrero. I think this is very creative, and in fact it does look like that guy, taking a siesta, and facing to the left.

Does anyone know of a good reason for staying with the rather abstract wild dogs in favor of changing it to 'Siesta Man'?

Thanks

狐 fox
獅 lion
狼 wolf
狸 racoon dog
猪 boar
猿 monkey
猫 cat

and in non-'animal' characters like 犯 独 狂 狭 狩 猛 猟 獲 there are still some connotations of dog/beast associated with the meanings and in compounds, eg
狂 --> 狂犬,狂犬病 (im not exactly sure if these are common in japanese, but they are in chinese. In anycase do what you are most comfortable with but 'wild dogs' is a fairly accurate/simple etymological choice for a primitive name.

Don't just go after a primitive that will give you a 'crazy story' just so you can remember a single keyword, rather, choose a primitive that when creating a story will give you the sense of its meaning(s) since there is no such thing as an exact meaning.

Thanks for the examples. This of course was my main concern; where would I go with this and would it be a dead-end. I'd tentatively gone only as far as cat, which was easy when you think about a cat's tendency to nap, or take a siesta. But I can see the associations might get more difficult down the road -- even retaining wild dogs.

I'm very leery of changing too much, so your cautions have reached understanding eyes.

Thanks again.

There's also another primitive that takes the general meaning of a guy taking siesta under the hot sun; it's first introduced before frame 451. If you've got the book, check it out before you make any changes that might cause you a headache down the line.

Actually, I find "wild dogs" to be one of the easier primitives to work into a story. Because they're "wild", I can get them to do almost anything in my head. It's also a great visual image, and therefore easy to remember. But your mileage may vary, of course.

I knew this radical as beast before starting RTK so in most of my stories I used wild beast with werewolf occasionally substituting. Except with prison 獄. The chihuahua trying to talk his way out of being the wild dog's bitch in prison was just too easy.

I keep "wild dogs" in mind, but I also think of it as "wild beast" because I had learned it that way in the past. I also often change it to "the joker" from Batman to give me a vivid image. But I don't have a problem remembering that it basically means "wild beast" because I envision the joker as a wild beast himself, so the images work together and don't compete in my mind. It helps me to use characters, as long as they do fit the meaning of the primitive pretty closely. I also sometimes make 守 mean "batman" since he is a guard or protector. Therefore, I can remember 狩（hunt) as: the joker (who is like a wild beast) always HUNTS batman (who is the protector or guard of Gotham), but he doesn't really want to kill him since the HUNT is fun for him...
For something like 猫(cat) I just use "wild beast" because it's much more straightforward and easy to envision a cat as a little "wild beast" crouching in the grass of a field.