Git Along, Little Dogies

Posted by Henry on December 27, 2004

In Reply to: Get A Long Little Doggy posted by Word Camel on December 27, 2004

: : : what do you mean by "get a long little doggy"?? or "get along little doggy"? and could you tell me the origin! thanx!

: :
: : I think it should be 'dogy' or 'dogie' (what in the UK would be called a heifer). It comes from cattle ranching, presumably, and I assume is just a phrase used to move the dogies along; something like 'shoo' or whatever.

: : DFG

: A dogie is a motherless calf.

:
: Dogies Lament
: As I was out walkin' one mornin' for pleasure
: I spied a cowpuncher a-ridin along
: His hat was throwed back and hie spurs were a-jingling
: And as he approached, he was singin' this song
: Chorus:
: Whoopie-ti-yi-yo, get along you little dogie's
: It's your misfortune and none of my own
: Whoopie-ti-yi-yo, get along you little dogie's
: You know that Wyoming will be your new home

: It's early in the spring when we round up the dogies
: We mark 'em and brand 'em and Bob off their tails
: We round up the horses, load up the chuck-wagon,
: Then send the dogies out on the long trail.

: Chorus

: Your mother was raised away down in Texas,
: Where the gipsom weed and the 'sanders grow
: We'll feed you up on prickly-pear and choya
: And then send you loapin' to old Idaho

: Chorus

This song was first noted down by Owen Wister in his Journal, February, 1893, at Brownwood, Texas. "I have come upon a unique song... and I transcribe it faithfully. Only a cowboy could have produced such an effusion. It has the earmark of entire genuineness."

As I walked out one morning for pleasure,
I met a cowpuncher a-jogging along.
His hat was thrown back and his spurs was a-jingling,
And as he advanced he was singing this song.
(Chorus)
Sing hooplio get along my little dogies,
For Wyoming shall be your new home.
It's hooping and yelling and cursing those dogies,
To our misfortune but none of your own.

It's pronounced doe-gies.