This article explores canine representations and imaginaries in modern literature and culture, distinguishing different modes in Hispanic, American and European narratives. It is suggested that with the proliferation of mascots in late capitalism, osmosis has been produced between human and canine society, creating an interaction that has a correlation in literature. It is an osmosis that paradoxically reveals the humanity of animals and the unsociability and spiritual isolation of human beings. Reaffirming the specific character of literary language such as unconcealment and revelation, this article proposes distinct variables -philosophical, scientific and socio-historic- in order to address the corpus and question canine imaginaries in literature, above all in respect to the human condition vis a vis the animal condition and vice versa.