Gazing at the Bird Dogs at Blade West, they impressed me as a sleeper "kit knife" base for tweeking a small knife in a big-little combo. Dogfather for large, modded BD for small -- Sweet!!
Here's one quick idea I Photochopped from the Bird Dog for a semi-square-nosed reduction of the swept tip of the standard version. The cropped tip is much in the style of the Chinese dao knives I've seen. You can see the amount of the tip I removed in the picture.
I think a drop-point reduction would also make a very handy little knife offering the security of the Mudder handle.