Thanks for the suggestions. The type of characters I'm trying to design are sort of animal/human hybrids, such as a dog with a human style body, and human-type facial features, if you follow what I mean. I essentially want something that is based on a dog/cat, etc, but you can tell from its face that it is supposed to be based on a human.

Something along the lines of the characters Timothy Albee used in Kaze: Ghost Warrior, but looking a bit more human.