Shaggy dog stories

ODDS AND eNDS

Shaggy dog stories

BOyD JONeS, BVSc, FACVSc, DeCVIm-Ca

Some years ago, I was given a copy of Brewer’s Dictionary of Fame and Fable (19th edition) by Dr Darren merrett, my cotutor for the CVE course in internal medicine which we taught together for the university of Sydney for many years. the book sat on a bookshelf with occasional reference searches but it was not until CoVID and “home confinement” that it received a real read and ongoing consultation. the book contains thousands of items: curiosities, odds and ends and themes related to literature, language, and our daily lives. It is a fun read with many surprises and chuckles over meanings of words, origins of sayings and literary quotations. the short section on dogs appealed to me. So many familiar (and some unfamiliar) sayings and quotations many of which we use in everyday language and in writing. We are all familiar with dogleg (golfers), dog collar (the church), dog’s dinner (a mess), dog tags (military), as sick as a dog (of biblical origin, Proverbs 26:ii, Peter 2:22), dog’s life (a miserable existence), go to the dogs (to go to ruin morally or materially – food unfit for human consumption was given to the dogs). Dogs bollocks (the very best or most outstanding) – a British slang expression perhaps inspired by the notion of conspicuousness according to Brewer? Not sure we use bollocks in the same context. More I see of men the more I love dogs has obvious meaning, whether correct or incorrect is for you to decide! It is attributed to madame de Sévigné (17th century), madame Roland (18th Century) and Frederick the Great of Prussia (18th Century). Did I know that Winston Churchill had a poodle called Rufus? or that Richard Nixon had a dog called Checkers mentioned in his 1952 Checkers speech? I did remember that the Newfoundland, Nana from Peter Pan was the Darling children’s nurse and that mr Darling was confined to the dog kennel until his children returned, as a penance for his treatment of Nana. Perhaps now we associate the phrase in the dog house as being applied to a husband who has upset his wife/partner or has been behaving badly and is shunned? I knew the phrase Dog in the night time meant an unwitting party to a crime and was in reference to a dog by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in, I thought, Hound of the Baskervilles – but it was not, it was from his story the Silver Blaze in which the dog did not bark because it knew the man who took the horse from the stables. the exchange between Holmes and inspector Gregory is famous;

“Is there a point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

“to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” “the dog did nothing in the night time.”

“that is the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes. Dogs in classics and legends must include odysseus’ dog Argos (Figure 1), who, after waiting 20 years whilst his master was fighting in troy and making his return journey home to Ithaca, recognises his master although he was disguised as a beggar to enable him to enter his house and expel his wife Penelope’s suitors! Argos who is old and neglected is lying in cow manure and infested with ticks and fleas. He recognises odysseus but can’t get up to greet his master; however he drops his ears and wags his tail. odysseus, who does not want to be recognised, sheds a tear but does not acknowledge the faithful Argos. Argos dies.

Figure 1. Odysseus and Argos

Credit: Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OdysseusArgos. jpg#/media/File:OdysseusArgos.jpg

“Argos passed into the darkness of death now that he had fulfilled his destiny of faith and seen his master once more after 20 years.” Homer, odysseus, Book 17 We learned that story at school or veterinary school. Perhaps the Australian equivalent is the Australian cattle dog 5 miles from Gundagai, who sat on the tuckerbox guarding it and waiting for his master, a bullock driver, to return. He didn’t return and the dog died, waiting and loyal. Stories, books, poems and a song tell this Aussie story. I have visited his statue (Figure 2) which, I think was vandalised some years ago and then restored.

Figure 2. The statue of the dog on the tuckerbox at gundagai

Photocredit: AYArktos, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/

index.php?curid=406506 Figure 3. Setanta slays the hound of Culain. Illustration by Stephen Reid from “The Boys’ Cuchlain” by eleanor Hull (1904).

the Aussie dog I remember from student days was the dog on the v’randa from the Slim Dusty song Pub with no beer which was sung at a variety of (maybe boozy) student functions and I remember the lines:

“Now there’s a dog on the v’randa, for his master, he waits,

But his boss is inside, drinking wine with his mates.

He hurries for cover and cringes in fear. t’s no place for a dog, round a pub with no beer.” my time in Ireland was useful in collecting legends about dogs. St Patrick who spent six years on a remote hill in Northern Ireland around 432 AD escaped, being directed by an angel who said, “Lo thy ship is ready.” Young Patrick had to travel 200 miles to the ship which was a merchant vessel, bound for Gaul with a cargo of dogs. Breeding of dogs in Ireland was so organised and of such repute in the early 5th century that they were exported to the continent by the shipload (maybe not too different today with puppy farms being of ongoing concern in Ireland). From stories recorded in early Irish literature it is clear that dogs occupied an important place in the Irish imagination. the dog has a dominant place in heroic tales. the most famous Irish hero Cu Chulainn took the place of a guard dog he had accidentally killed (Figure 3). He was known in his youth as Setanta, the nephew of King Conor. Setanta was attacked by the dog of Culann the smith, an animal said to have the strength of a hundred men. Nevertheless the young lad grabbed the dog by the throat and smashed it against a pillar so that its limbs “lept from their sockets”, according to táin (Irish epic tales). He did not know his own strength. Culann had lost a valuable dog but Setanta promised to replace it with a pup and to guard Culann’s property until the pup was old enough to work. A priest who witnessed the feat of strength renamed the lad Cu Chulainn, the hound of Culann.

there are other great stories; the contest between King Conor and Queen maeve over whom will win the dog called Ailbé, probably an Irish Wolfhound. Ailbé had supernatural intelligence and could run around Leinster (an Irish province) in a single day – he had speed! the dog was asked to decide whether maeve’s men or Conor’s men were more heroic. unfortunately this was the end of Ailbé who was killed while pursuing the frightened men of King Conor. Next time some dog stories from New Zealand.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3484385

References

The Native Dogs of Ireland (First edtn.). Pp 2–6, Irish kennel

Club, Dublin, Ireland, 1984 Dent S. (ed). Brewer’s Dictionary of Fame and Fable (19th edtn.). Pp 390–4. Chambers Harrap Publishers ltd., london, uk, 2012 l