I think they probably made the change because we call them Raccoon Dogs in English, and it could be confusing to kids to see Tom Nook called a Raccoon Dog, just because they're not well known here. Tanuki? Even less so. Translating sakura to cherry blossoms and onigiri to riceball is just the correct thing to do, most people are not well versed in Japanese and the point of translation is to make it understandable for English-speaking audiences.