work dog

See also: workdog

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From work +‎ dog.

Noun

work dog (plural work dogs)

  1. A working dog; a dog breed created to perform specific tasks (e.g. herding).
    • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, “The Cousins’ Bobtails,”
      Wisps of straw stuck in the workdog’s coat, mud was on her feet, she reeked of cow.
    • 2012, Emma Gray, “Love me, love my dogs,” The Daily Mail, 13 April, 2012,
      Roy is my best work dog, a real powerhouse. He is very intelligent and I can trust him to do anything — whether it’s bringing in the big aggressive male sheep […] or gently catching a baby lamb who’s become separated from its mother.
    • 2013, Dan Nosowitz, “I Met the World’s Smartest Dog,” Popular Science, 26 August, 2013,
      Border collies are the only dogs I like. […] They are work dogs, not lap dogs.
    • 2015, Stephen Sumner, Phantom Pain: A Memoire: It’s All in Your Head:
      He's such a good dog. He's headstrong and incorrigible and relentless and I love him for it. He's half French Briard and half Maremmane, the South Tuscan sheepdog. So he's all workdog and smart as a whip.
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