
Western Song: Get Along, Little Dogies
“Get along, Little Dogies or Git along, Little Dogies,” also known under the title, “Whoopie Ti Yi Yo,” is a traditional cowboy ballad. The song is believed to be a variation of a traditional Irish ballad regarding an old man rocking a cradle. In the 1893 journal of Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, the cowboy adaptation was first mentioned. The melody and lyrics were first published in 1910, under the influence of Wister, in the Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads of John Lomax. It is classified as Roud Folk Song Index No. 827. Members of Western Writers of America chose “Get along, Little Dogies” as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
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About the Song
The word dogie referred to a motherless calf who had to eat grass before being adult enough to digest it. It caused the calf to develop a large stomach which cowboys referred to as dough guts, later shortened to dogies. In this traditional song, the “dogies” meant cattle tough enough to be herded from Texas to Wyoming, including young, non-orphaned animals.
Popular Recordings
Harry “Mac” McClintock’s version of the song was the earliest commercial recording released in 1929 as “Get Along, Little Doggies.” Other artists who recorded the song include:
- Bing Crosby
- Roy Rogers
- Tex Ritter
- The Sons of the Pioneers
- Pete Seeger
- The Bar G Wranglers
- The Kingston Trio
- Charlie Daniels
- David Bromberg
- Alvin and the Chipmunks
- Holly Golightly
- Karen Dalton
- Suzy Bogguss
- Nickel Creek
Get Along, Little Dogies Adaptation
The song has been adapted on television and in books.
- The American animated comedy-musical television series Animaniacs adapted the song.
- In 1999, Terry Kluytmans, Sayward songwriter, also adapted the song on the children’s music site KIDiddles.
- In 1991, Historian Richard borrowed a line from the song as the title to his book It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West.
Other Titles
Multiple artists recorded versions of the song, also written as:
- Git Along, Little Doggies
- Whoopie Ti Yi Yo
- Get Along, Little Doggies
- Dogie’s Lament
Listen (Harry McClintock Version)
Get Along, Little Dogies Lyrics
As I walked out one morning for pleasure I spied a cowpuncher a ridin' along His head was throwed back and his spurs was a-jinglin' As he approached me singin' this song: Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, none of my own. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, You know Wyoming will be your new home. Early in Spring we round up the dogies Mark 'em and brand 'em and bob off their tails Round up our horses and load the chuck wagon And then throw the dogies out on the trail. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, none of my own. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, You know Wyoming will be your new home. Some boys go with a trail hard for pleasure That's where they get it most awfully wrong For you haven't any idea the trouble they give us While the little dogies go rolling along. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, none of my own. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, You know Wyoming will be your new home. Their mother's was left away down in Texas Where the jimson weed and the sandburrs grow All that they eat was mesquite and cholla But now they are trailin' to Idaho. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, none of my own. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, You know Wyoming will be your new home. They'll all be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns: "It's beef, heap beef," I hear them cry Git along, git along, git along little dogies The Injuns will get you by and by. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, It's your misfortune, none of my own. Whoopie ti yi yo! Git along little dogies, You know Wyoming will be your new home.