How did "Kobold" end up referring to dog/wolf creatures in Japanese media? Western kobolds are little lizard guys and absolutely nothing like Japanese kobolds, so where did the shared name come from? For Orcs is makes sense. Even though the West doesn't have the pig aesthetic they're still big, tough, strong brutes with tusks that are usually evil. They fill similar roles and have some similar physical traits, so calling them the same thing is pretty natural. Kobolds don't have any of that though.
They got it from oldschool Dungeons & Dragons, believe it or not. Just like pig orcs.
D&D has revised quite a few of its monsters over the years. The lizard-like kobold only really became a thing in D&D's 3rd edition. But 3E is also when D&D
really went mainstream, so it overshadowed the previous editions... in the West, at least.
Earlier editions of D&D had already made a big impact on fantasy in Japan. Hence why you see lingering early D&D influences in Japanese media like pig-orcs and dog-kobolds.
Though the original kobolds had little to do with either - they were minor house-spirits, mine-spirits, or earth elementals.
