It looks like a lion to me. Stylized and probably not drawn from nature!

The wood in the seat photo is definitely oak or one of its relatives. It's harder to tell in the second seat shot and the back, but I suspect that's because of the lighting. Woods wouldn't usually be mixed in a piece like this, unless it was meant to be painted or have a very dark stain, which I don't think is the case here.

I beg to differ....woods would be mixed in a chair like this because, for one example, oak doesn't work so well for turnings as other woods do.
The animal is a "whatever".... a mythical critter....likely a cross between a lion and a foo dog.
Nice chairs, have the broken rung fixed and put caning in the seat of the one that doesn't have it....it's really easy to do.

I was thinking elm for the wood. You all don't think so?

Mixed woods, the back turnings are maple (typical) there seems to be some ash/oak grain on the front seat member (looking at end-grain is necessary). The steam-pressed back is probably soft maple.

Casey

Wood in the first chair could be maple or ash.

The seat of the second chair (with caned bottom) might be oak.

If you aren't the one who posted your chairs on this site asking for info, you might find this interesting: Several identical or nearly identical chairs....
Snarling dogs chair...

I still think it's a lion and not a dog as the person in Olychick's link seems to think. It has a little beardy tuft under the chin, which is more lion-ish than dog-ish IMO.

Colleen....check out "foo dogs".

Sorry to disagree with you, Linda. I know about "foo dogs" (which are actually a Chinese representation of _lions_) but a) this carving doesn't have any of the Chinese style of carving that westerners call a "foo dog" and b) none of the other carving on the chair looks remotely Asian, so why would there be this aberrant animal?

HERE is a good article on "Press-back" chairs. They were made popular by the Sears & Larkin mailorder catalogues. When we see multiple chairs with the exact same image clearly it is "Press-back", not hand carved.

Wow, oylchick! That was not me who posted on the other forum and I was very glad to see it. So there are quite a few chairs with the dog/wolf/lion/foo dog on them. I wish I could go with the guy who says they're carved and rare, but I don't think I can. They must have been quite popular.

I mentioned a foo dog not because I thought it was an image of one on the chair but because there are many instances of strange hybred animals depicted on the decorative arts.

Stylized wolf would be my guess

Google images for Lion Rampant, you will see many versions. Some with mane, some without, some with tongue, some without, some with crown, some without. What reason do we have to believe this is not a lion rampant?

BTW, I see a tongue in the chair image.

I have one from 18 century at first they called wolves back then today's day people call them dogs bitts very rare price only found I have one.Thus true story