During the most recent creature type errata Naga are being changed to Snake. Jackals have fewer creatures than Nagas, so why weren't they changed to Dog? What's the criteria for a creature type errata if it's not based on creature types with fewer cards being rolled into larger ones?

The simple answer is Jackals aren’t Dogs in the vernacular of how people talk about them. We try to avoid using creature types that make for creative dissonance.

Can we batch cainines? Lions are cats, leopards are cats, and leonine are cats , but what about dogs? We have coyotes, dogs, foxes, jackals, and wolves, but nothing that groups them? Betrayal of man’s best friend I say.

It’s a possibility in the right set.

Why does the game have Dog, Wolf, Jackal, and Fox as creature types, but all the felines (Except Hyenas, for some reason) are typed as Cat? Dog tribal really suffers for this. If lions, tigers, and felidar (Oh my!) can all be under the same type as house cats, then wolves, jackals, and foxes should be just fine grouped in with dogs as well.

Blame English. All jungle cats are called “cats” while all the things you list aren’t called “dogs”.

In reference to you saying "I don’t think Red gets a vanilla 2/1 for R." Red has had that with an upside, Falkenrath Gorger, and plenty of those with downsides, Jackal Pup. What is preventing red from having something inbetween? Is Falkenrath Gorger considered a break/bend?

Let me clarify what I was saying. Common and uncommon are more focused on the power level of limited formats while rare and mythic rare are more focused on the power level of constructed formats. A red one-drop vanilla 2/1 is a bit strong in limited, so we don’t tend to make it at common and uncommon. The power level is acceptable in constructed formats, but at the higher rarities we tend not to do vanilla creatures, so it tends to have things added to it. That’s why it’s tricky to get a vanilla one-drop 2/1 in red.

"Wolves aren’t Dogs" In the same way that lions and panthers aren't cats. But once you generically group lions and panthers under "Cats", then Wolves and Jackals should be grouped under "Dogs" (it should be "Felines" and "Canines", but if you use the more common parlance, the two sets should behave in the same way). Also, Hyena should be a "Cat Dog" because it's genetically both.

The problem is jungle cats like lions and panthers *are* referred to as cats while wolves are never referred to as dogs.

Why are all feline animals tribal-ed as cats in Magic, but canine animals are separated between 5 different tribes (hound, jackal, wolf, fox, and Hyena). As a canine lover it makes me a bit sad since tribal support for canine is separated across so many tribes.

You have the English language to blame as big jungle cats are referred to as “cats”.

All felines, be they quadrupeds or bipeds, lions, tigers or leonins, share the same creature type: cat. Why don't canids? Having werewolves, wolves, hounds and jackals as separate creature types really hurts tribal gameplay.

It was a vernacular issue. The fact that large jungle cats are called “cats” helped a lot.

Why are there so many pointless creature types like Jackals that have zero tribal support? And why didn't Jackals recieve any while they were a major race of Amonkhet?

We’ve made the choice to have more creature types than available tribal cards for variety. That means not every tribe gets tribal cards, at least not enough to build a whole deck around. We continue to make new tribal cards, some of which let you choose a tribe, so there’s always hope for your favorite.

Was there ever a debate about if the Amonkhet Gods would get a secondary creature type back when it was being designed? e.g. "Cat God, Bird God, Crocodile God, Jackal God, Snake God"

No, we tend to just let Gods be Gods.

Was Jackal Pup ever under consideration for reprinting in AKH or HOU?

Not that I know of.