What does "dog's circle" mean? I just watched an anime where the phrase dog's circle was used in the English subtitles.  The sentence was, "We are the dog's circle."  Is that a well known Japanese expression?  The anime was episode 6 of Natsume Yujin-Cho 5, where it was used at time mark 20:10.  The episode just went up on Crunchyroll this week.

From context, I'm pretty sure it refers to them being a group of friends or allies around one they protect, but not literally surrounding him/her.  Checking on both Google and Bing, there appears to be no general English usage of this phrase.  Is my interpretation correct, and in Japanese would the phrase be instantly understood?
I'm sure someone can give a better answer than mine, since I have not read or watched the series.

Dog's circle is not a Japanese phrase. Looking at the Japanese wiki article, it mentions an Inu no Kai (犬の会), or Gathering of Dogs.  It says it is a drinking club of youkai that would rush to Natsume like a dog for whatever reason he calls them, therefore the "dog" name.

I am assuming the "gathering" part of the title was translated as "circle", which I don't think is a very good translation.  Circle is used in Japanese to refer to clubs, like an "anime club", but does not translate over well back to English in that same sense.  I think the name should've been capitalized to make it clear it's a proper noun. Still, if they're throwing a term like that around, I would assume it was explained somewhere in the series.