the dog did my homework

Where Did The Phrase “The Dog Ate My Homework” Come From?

Dogs are known as man’s best friend. Dogs keep us safe, are hard workers … and can provide a handy excuse in a pinch. Maybe that’s why versions of the classic expression the dog ate my homework have been around for hundreds of years.

Today, the dog ate my homework is used as a stock example of the kind of silly excuses schoolchildren give for why their work isn’t finished. Very rarely do people say, “the dog ate my homework” and expect it to be taken literally; they use the expression as an example of a typically flimsy excuse.

So where did the phrase come from?

Forrest Wickman, a writer for Slate , describes the legend of the 6th-century Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise as the alleged first recorded “the dog ate my homework” story. According to the tale, Saint Ciarán had a tame young fox that would take his writings to his master for him. One day, the fox grew up and decided to eat the leather strap binding the writings together instead. Still, this tale is more Garden-of-Eden parable and less terrible schoolchild excuse.

The notion that dogs will eat just about anything, including paper, turns up in lots of stories over the centuries. An example comes from The Humors of Whist , published in 1808 in Sporting Magazine . In the story, the players are sitting around playing cards when one of them remarks that their companion would have lost the game had the dog not eaten the losing card. Good boy.

Some attribute the creation of the dog ate my homework to a joke that was going around at the beginning of the 20th century. In a tale found as far back as an 1894 memoir by Anglican priest Samuel Reynolds Hole, a preacher gives a shortened version of a sermon because a dog got into his study and ate some of the pages he had written. However, the clerk loved it because they had been wanting the preacher to shorten his sermons for years.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first example of the dog ate my homework excuse in print can be found in a speech given by retiring headmaster James Bewsher in 1929 and published in the Manchester Guardian : “It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework.” The way this comment is phrased suggests that the whole dog ate my homework story had been around for some time before it was put in print.

When was the word homework created?

But in order for a dog to eat homework specifically, homework had to be invented (oh, and how we wish it hadn’t been). True, the word homework , as in what we call today housework , appears as early as 1653. But homework , as in school exercises to be done at home, isn’t found until 1852. Once we had homework , it was only a matter of time before the dog was accused of eating it.

How we use this phrase now

No matter the origin, sometime in the 1950s, the expression became set as the dog ate my homework . This inspired any number of riffs on the theme, like my cow ate my homework or my brother ate my homework . In the 1960s, the dog ate my homework continued to gain popularity. The expression popped up a couple times in politics over the years, like when President Reagan said to reporters in 1988, “I had hoped that we had marked the end of the ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ era of Congressional budgetry … but it was not to be.”

It seems unlikely that the dog ate my homework was ever used consistently or frequently by actual schoolchildren. In fact, it’s the unlikeliness of the story that makes it so funny and absurd as a joke. Instead, teachers and authority figures appear to have cited the dog ate my homework many times over the years as such a bad excuse they can’t believe students are really using it.

In the 21st century, students don’t spend as much time working with physical pen and paper as they once did. That may contribute to the decline in the use of the phrase. So, maybe soon we’ll see a new equally absurd phrase pop up. Come on Zoomers, you’ve got this.

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Why Do We Say “The Dog Ate My Homework”?

The history of the delinquent schoolchild’s favorite excuse..

Did this sad Lab eat your homework?

iStockphoto.

Viacom announced on Monday that Mitt Romney had declined to appear on Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President special this year, citing time constraints. President Obama’s camp pounced on Romney’s decision, saying, “Kids demand details … ‘The dog ate my homework’ just doesn’t cut it when you’re running for president. ” When did “my dog ate my homework” become known as schoolchildren’s favorite excuse?

The 1970s. Delinquent schoolchildren and adults have been blaming their shortcomings on their pets for more than a century, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that “my dog ate my homework” came to be considered the No. 1 likely story. One of the first sad sacks who was said to blame his dog for his own ill-preparedness was a priest. In this anecdote, which appeared as early as 1905, a clergyman pulls his clerk aside after a service to ask him whether his sermon seemed long enough. The clerk assures him that it was very nice, “just the right length,” and the priest is relieved. “I am very glad to hear you say that,” he says, “because just before I started to come here my dog got hold of my sermon and ate some of the leaves .” The story was repeated again and again . The first citation of the excuse in the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1929 article from the Manchester Guardian , which reads, “It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework.” In Bel Kaufman’s best-selling 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase , a list of students’ excuses for not having their homework includes “ My dog went on my homework ” and “ My dog chewed it up .” Even in 1965, however, it was still just another excuse.

“My dog ate my homework” became known as the quintessential far-fetched excuse in the next decade, when the phrase was used over and over . In a 1976 account of the Watergate tapes, E.C. Kennedy describes listening to President Nixon “ working on the greatest American excuse since the dog ate my homework .” A 1977 article from Alaska’s Daily News-Miner describes the difficulty students faced in coming up with a new excuse since “ ‘My dog ate my term paper’ is no longer acceptable .”

The excuse was alluded to more and more throughout the 1980s. A 1982 Time magazine column on excuses suggested that “The dog ate my homework is a favorite with schoolchildren,” while a 1987 New York Times column about how students were starting to blame malfunctioning computers and printers quoted one teacher as saying she recently received “ a note from a student’s mother saying the dog ate his homework .” Even the president picked up on the trend: When Congress pushed spending approval to the last minute in 1988, Ronald Reagan complained to reporters, “ I had hoped that we had marked the end of the ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ era of Congressional budgetry … but it was not to be .” It was all over television, with references to the excuse on shows like The Simpsons and Full House . By 1989, the narrator of Saved by the Bell theme was singing, “ And the dog ate all my homework last night .”

The phrase continued to grow more popular. Between 1990 and 2000, the New York Times wrote articles with headlines such as “ Beyond ‘Dog Ate My Homework’ ” and “ Homework Help Sites (Or, the Dog Ate My U.R.L.) ,” while The New Yorker described one criminal’s accounts of his wrongdoings as having “a decided my-dog-ate-my-homework quality.” Children’s books tried to capitalize on the trend with titles like A Dinosaur Ate My Homework , Aliens Ate My Homework , Godzilla Ate My Homework , and My Teacher Ate My Homework , daring to use the term to promote reading and education. Such titles have continued into the 2000s, but in recent years the phrase seems to finally be losing steam .

Bonus Explainer: An Obama spokesperson also said, “ It’s no surprise Romney decided to play hookey .” Why do we call cutting school “playing hookey”? To play hookey began as an Americanism in the 19 th century. The earliest known citation comes from 1848, from John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms , where it was said to mean “to play truant” and noted to be “ a term used among schoolboys, chiefly in the State of New York .” Word historians usually suggest that it’s from to hook it meaning to run away , a term as old as the Revolutionary War. However, others have proposed that it might derive from the Dutch expression hoekje spelen , the Dutch expression for “hide and seek”—especially since playing hooky emerged in New York during a time when it had a larger Dutch population.

Got a question about today’s news?  Ask the Explainer .

Explainer thanks Barry Popik, Jesse Sheidlower of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Ben Zimmer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com .

BUT THE DOG REALLY DID

EAT MY HOMEWORK!

There's a kid, name of Kyle, homework's not quite his style,

likes to get a drink and sit there for awhile, (This is Kyle!)

puts his work in a pile, (he prefers to smile)

starts in just a little while. Kyle really did do his

homework and he put it in his pack on the floor. Uh oh!

"Did you know that a dog would eat homework?"

When he got up he said, "Oh my gosh, now I'm dead!"

There was chewed-up homework lying on the floor by his bed.

"Come here, dog!" Kyle said. Doggy tilts his head.

"What's your problem, dog? You were already fed.

You've got bones in your head!" Kyle said,

ran off and got the bus, saw his friends and said:

"Do you know that my dog ate my homework?"

All his friends said, "Yeah right! Like you're up half the night,

doing homework now or some-thing." "Guess again. Not too bright!"

"Say that you hurt your hand, and you couldn't write."

"Say your folks were out last night. Go bump your head."

"See the nurse. Act sick.”

“Just spin and spin until you fall down." they said.

"But my dog really did eat my homework."

Later on in his class, Teacher said, "Will you pass

in your homework please from yesterday." Then Kyle said, "Alas!"

When he tried to explain  it was all in vain,

and the teacher shook her head "Kyle, let and said to

Kyle, "Let me make something plain:

At three o'clock you will re main. See you after class!"

"But the dog really did eat my homework!"

So until 3:45 he stayed,

till his debt to society was paid, I'm afraid,

When he got home, he said to the dog on his bed,

"It was you got me in trouble after school, Dodo head!

All the world now thinks that I'm a big disgrace,

and they're on my case!

Why did you have to go eat my homework?"

...Then the dog licked his face.

This song is a true story. Kyle Ng’s

dog “Keiko”, a 7 month- old Boxer-

German shepherd mix, really did

eat his homework. But nobody

believed him, including his music

teacher, the composer of this song.

Kyle says that his dog is smart and

obeys commands such as “Eat!”.

words & music by Bill Vollinger ©2004

Heritage Choral 15/2005H

“But the Dog REALLY

DID Eat My Homework!”

(two-part treble voices & piano)

The Lorenz Corporation

501 E. Third St.

Dayton, Ohio 45401

(800) 444-1144 ext. 1

click for ordering information

• Skip to main content
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Strange News

Can the dog still eat your homework.

It may be the best known bad excuse for being unprepared: "The Dog Ate My Homework." But where does the phrase come from and how has it changed over the years? Weekend Edition host Scott Simon talks with Forrest Wickman, a reporter with Slate Magazine , who has the answers.

Copyright © 2012 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Where did that doggone phrase come from?

'the dog ate my homework,' which has been a catchall excuse for more than 100 years, is on its last legs..

By FORREST WICKMAN, Slate

When did "my dog ate my homework" become known as schoolchildren's favorite excuse?

Delinquent schoolchildren and adults have been blaming their shortcomings on their pets for more than a century, but it wasn't until the 1970s that "my dog ate my homework" came to be considered the No. 1 likely story.

One of the first sad sacks who was said to blame his dog for his own ill-preparedness was a priest. In this anecdote, which appeared as early as 1905, a clergyman pulls his clerk aside after a service to ask him whether his sermon seemed long enough. The clerk assures him that it was very nice, "just the right length," and the priest is relieved. "I am very glad to hear you say that," he says, "because just before I started to come here my dog got hold of my sermon and ate some of the leaves." The story was repeated again and again.

The first citation of the excuse in the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1929 article from the Manchester Guardian, which reads, "It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework." In Bel Kaufman's best-selling 1965 novel "Up the Down Staircase," a list of students' excuses for not having their homework includes "My dog went on my homework" and "My dog chewed it up." Even in 1965, however, it was still just another excuse.

"My dog ate my homework" became known as the quintessential far-fetched excuse in the next decade, when the phrase was used over and over. In a 1976 account of the Watergate tapes, E.C. Kennedy describes listening to President Richard Nixon "working on the greatest American excuse since the dog ate my homework." A 1977 article from Alaska's Daily News-Miner describes the difficulty students faced in coming up with a new excuse since "'My dog ate my term paper' is no longer acceptable."

The excuse was alluded to more throughout the 1980s. A 1982 Time magazine column on excuses suggested that "the dog ate my homework is a favorite with schoolchildren," while a 1987 New York Times column about how students were starting to blame malfunctioning computers and printers quoted one teacher as saying she recently received "a note from a student's mother saying the dog ate his homework."

Even the president picked up on the trend: When Congress pushed spending approval to the last minute in 1988, Ronald Reagan complained to reporters, "I had hoped that we had marked the end of the 'dog-ate-my-homework' era of congressional budgetry ... but it was not to be." After that, the phrase was all over television, including shows such as "The Simpsons" and "Full House."

Between 1990 and 2000, the phrase continued to grow in popularity. The New York Times wrote articles with headlines such as "Beyond 'Dog Ate My Homework' " and "Homework Help Sites (Or, the Dog Ate My U.R.L.)." The New Yorker described one criminal's accounts of his wrongdoings as having "a decided my-dog-ate-my-homework quality."

Not to be outdone, children's books tried to capitalize on the trend, with titles like "A Dinosaur Ate My Homework," "Aliens Ate My Homework," "Godzilla Ate My Homework" and even "My Teacher Ate My Homework."

While such book titles have continued into the 2000s, the phrase seems to finally be losing steam.

That means schoolkids will have to come up with a new, improved excuse.

More from Variety

After abrupt closure, game informer staffers reflect on the video game magazine’s impact.

The magazine’s parent company, GameStop, shut down the website after laying off 13 of the employees who worked on the monthly publication.

Stage & Arts

Shh. Tickets to musical version of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ have gone on presale to some lucky fans

Food & Culture

Don’t miss four tap-happy musicals and plays closing out summer’s dog days

the dog ate my homework

• 2011 May 6, Damian Carrington, “Environment action delays blamed on 'dog ate my homework' excuses”, in The Guardian ‎ [1] , archived from the original on 2022-08-24 : Their reasons for missed deadlines are mostly of the " dog ate my homework variety" including such easily foreseeable events as yesterday's elections and that the badger culling policy is "difficult and sensitive".
• 2014 September 12, Oscar Webb, quoting Donald Campbell, “UK Government Changes Its Line On Diego Garcia Flight Logs Sought in Rendition Row - Again”, in VICE ‎ [2] , archived from the original on 2022-12-05 : The government's excuses for Diego Garcia's missing records are getting increasingly confused and desperate. Ministers could hardly be less credible if they simply said ' the dog ate my homework .'
• 2017 February 18, Mia Berman, “Go West-minster, Young Mastiff”, in HuffPost ‎ [3] , archived from the original on 2019-04-09 : Our immune system's weak; we've been sick as a dog, missing work and school, resorting to " the dog ate my homework " excuses amidst these frigid dog days of winter.

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My Doggy Ate My Homework

“My Doggy Ate My Homework.” © 2004 by Dave Crawley. Reprinted from If Kids Ruled the School (© 2004 by Meadowbrook Creations) with permission from Meadowbrook Press.

Source: If Kids Ruled the School (Meadowbrook Press, 2004)

April 18, 2014

Contemporary Fiction , Education

The Dog Ate My Homework

It seemed like the most plausible excuse at the time: blame the new dog for eating up my now overdue essay. But then I just had to embellish...

Karen Donley-Hayes

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The fact of the matter was, I didn’t have anyone else to blame. So I blamed Roscoe–perhaps ill-advised, him being my father’s K-9 partner-in-waiting, but I had completely forgotten my homework. I wasn’t in the habit of lying or putting blame where it didn’t belong, but I was caught off guard–daydreaming about Roscoe, in fact. My third grade teacher now loomed over my desk, expectant, her hand outstretched, fingers wiggling. And in my deer-in-the-headlights stare, with Miss Underwood frowning down at me, the words blurted out all on their own.

“Roscoe ate it.”

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“What?” Miss Underwood scowled more, if that were possible. She planted her fists against her ample hips and leaned in, hovering over me.

I blinked, swallowed a spitless lump in my throat, and having already lied, promptly repeated myself. “Roscoe ate it,” I said with slightly more conviction.

Miss Underwood stood stiff, smack dab in front of my desk, so close I should have been able to smell the little flowers on her dress. I had an overpowering impulse to move away from her, but my chair shackled me to the spot. I stared at the vibrant gladiola sprouting out from beneath Miss Underwood’s belt, and felt the entire class’s attention span shake from all else and swoop down on me.

“Mister Pike. You are not lying to me, are you?” It was more a challenge than a question.

Miss Underwood absolutely terrified me–almost as much as did the prospect of acquiring the entire class’s ridicule or getting caught in a bald-faced lie–and such terror can be a remarkable survival mechanism, because my brain spun a web and my mouth spewed it out without so much as consulting with me. I sat, breathless and rapt with the rest of the class, listening to this story unfold.

“Oh, no ma’am,” a voice–my voice–poured out of me, my brain, frenetic, only barely keeping a syllable ahead of my mouth. “I wrote my report on the metamorphosis of tadpoles into frogs,” I heard. (It was a good thing I had recently become fascinated by this amphibious process and had not only been reading about it but observing it in the natural setting of our backyard.) “And I took the paper with me to the pond so that I could look at them and draw pictures to show the stages, and Roscoe came with me, and I had a tadpole on the top of the paper so I could trace it and Roscoe saw it and before I knew what happened he jumped on it and swallowed it whole, and the paper.”

I shifted my bug-eyed gaze up the floral landscape to the teacher’s face. Miss Underwood remained completely still.

“And the rock that I had holding the paper down,” my voice said. Her eye twitched, barely perceptible. “And the pencil I was using.” Her brows drew closer together. “And then it was dark, and I couldn’t draw them again, and then I had to do my chores and it was time for bed.”

Miss Underwood frowned, unwedged one hand from her hip and pointed at my chest. “You’d better be sure to get that dog to the vet, young man.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded vigorously. “We’re taking him this afternoon.”

“Good,” she said. “And re-write your report and bring it in tomorrow. Along with a report on how Roscoe did at the vet’s.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, and wondered if the pittance I had in the Mason jar under my bed could buy me a plane, train, or boat ticket anywhere else in the world.

That afternoon, when I slouched from the school bus, Roscoe careened down the driveway to meet me, his half-grown legs all knobs and paws flying indiscriminately; he seemed none the worse for wear for his “misadventure” of the day before. I trudged up the driveway, the pup orbiting around me, bounding and panting, pausing only to wolf down my mother’s lone remaining gladiola. While my reporting of late had been very light on honesty, there was truth to the fact that Roscoe was a one-canine mauling, gulping, devouring, completely-nondiscriminatory eating machine. The gladiolas, much to my mother’s dismay, had vanished into his maw during a single galumphing frenzy; this was shortly after Roscoe had discovered the infinite wonders that the frog pond in the backyard held. Mom had admonished my father to restrain the dog. Dad had testified that socialization was critical to Roscoe’s mental development and future as a police dog. Mom declared her flowers unfair casualties. Dad promised to build a fence for her gardens (a moot point, as Roscoe had already decimated them).

The sound of my mother’s footsteps on the porch drew my attention; I looked up to see Roscoe gleefully caprioling by her side. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and was staring at me with an expression that immediately made me slow my already lethargic trudge.

“I hear Roscoe ate your homework,” she said. There was no tone of accusation or belief–or even disbelief, for that matter–just a simple statement. I stopped and looked up at her, and for two ticks of a heartbeat I was on the verge of coming clean. I steeled myself to admit my lie, to face the consequences, and to be a better man for it. During those two ticks of a heartbeat, Roscoe splayed himself on the porch and latched onto one of the banister posts, gnawing and grunting.

“Yes ma’am,” I said, and felt the heat rise under my collar as I lied to my own mother. I looked intently at Roscoe (who supported my story with his every action) to avoid looking in my mother’s eyes. I heard her sigh.

“Well, alright then. I called Dr. Brown’s office as soon as Miss Underwood phoned me, so let’s get things together and get going. Hopefully, he’ll be fine; it’s that rock I’m worried about.”

I nodded and walked up the porch steps, head down and ashamed, and slipped past my mother, past the squirming, euphoric mass of German shepherd enthusiasm. My mother stayed on the porch while I dropped my book bag on the kitchen table. Roscoe leapt up, flung himself against her legs. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her reach down idly and rub his head. He gazed up at her adoringly, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, wood splinters flecking his lips; his tailed swished nonstop across the porch.

“Maybe the paper and rock and all just went right through him,” I said, and hoped that if a dog actually were to eat a paper and a rock, they might actually move right along. Otherwise, I was going to be busted when the vet checked the dog out and declared him devoid of foreign objects. Not that I wanted him to have a problem; I didn’t, but his clean bill of health was my sentence. Granted, it was of my own making.

“I hope so,” Mom’s voice came in from the porch. I heard her add, under her breath, “Roscoe, you’re going to be the death of me if you live long enough.”

In the vet’s waiting room, I studiously worked on my tadpole-to-frog report, shielding it from Roscoe, who my mother worked up a sweat restraining. And when it was finally his turn to go in and be examined, and I was left with silence and the weight of my own guilt, I could barely remember the details of amphibian metamorphosis, much less write about them. Mom, quiet, read a paperback. The clock on the wall ticked off five minutes, 10, 15; the smell of the waiting room mixed with the odor of wet dog, cat pee, and rodent cage litter, and I began to feel nauseous.

“How’s your paper coming?” Mom asked. I shrugged. I sweated.

I was nearly to the point of breaking down and admitting my guilt, or at least bolting from the waiting room and into the parking lot, when Dr. Brown summoned us. Mom clutched her purse, and I drooped behind her, a condemned man going to the gallows. The vet brought us into the execution chamber, and closed the door. The harsh florescent lights gleamed, ruthless and all-seeing. Roscoe was not in the room to witness my punishment.

Dr. Brown cleared his throat. I felt a prickling thrill of sweat, and stared fixedly at the poster of canine parasites on the wall. “Well, we took x-rays of Roscoe, and we don’t see your rock or your paper.”

I couldn’t help a fleeting glance at the vet; he met my eyes for a beat, then looked over at Mom. “But it’s a good thing you brought him in, because we did see something else.”

I blinked, confused.

“Oh?” my mother said.

Dr. Brown turned his back to us, popped a thick sheet of film against a panel, and turned on the light behind it. Ribs and spine and gray masses flickered to light. Dr. Brown glanced over his shoulder toward us. Both Mom and I leaned toward the glowing image. Dr. Brown cleared his throat again and pointed to something in the middle of the picture. I looked closer, squinted, and then with a sting of recognition, I understood the image on the screen. My mother realized at the same time, and she chuffed, glancing sidelong at me.

“This,” Dr. Brown said, tapping the image of my G.I. Joe, recently MIA, “needs to come out. And it won’t come out the easy way like that rock did,” he glanced down at me again. “It will snag other things he swallows, and you’re going to have a bad emergency situation, maybe a dead dog.”

My mother reached for the collar of her blouse, pressed her hand flat. “Oh, no. Oh, poor Roscoe!”

My skin prickled again, but I wasn’t worried about my guilt and punishment anymore. “Will he be okay?” My voice sounded tiny and tremulous. “He won’t really die, will he?”

Dr. Brown smiled then. “No, I think we got him in time. We’ll put him on the surgery schedule for the morning, and he should be right as rain in a month’s time.” He reached a hand out and ruffled my hair. I realized I was crying. “In a way, it’s a good thing he ate your homework, otherwise you might not have found out about this until it was too late.”

I looked up at him lamely.

That weekend, Dad fenced off what was left of Mom’s gardens, I patrolled the entire house and yard and commandeered all swallowable objects (and even some that didn’t seem swallowable), and my folks and I discussed the new obedience regimen for Roscoe. When he came home a few days later, belly shaved but none-the-worse for wear, I doted on him and chaperoned him vigilantly. After a short period of gorging withdrawal, Roscoe adjusted gleefully to his obedience training, and was already ahead of the learning curve when he officially entered his police-dog training.

I was too ashamed to ever admit to my parents my panic-induced homework fabrication. I like to think that the guilt and anxiety I experienced for that long afternoon was punishment enough, and sometimes, I also like to think that it was all part of the plan for Roscoe’s long and decorated life. I like to think that, but I don’t believe it much more than Miss Underwood believed me.

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Origin of "my dog ate my homework"?

Is there a specifc incident or origin story for the common joke/comedic phrase "my dog ate my homework"? I always wondered whether there was a student who became notorious for not turning in their homework and using that excuse, or whether someone somewhere used it as a flimsy excuse and everyone thought it was funny, or any other reason...

If no one can find anything, do we at least know how long it's been around as a saying?

Also, how often does it turn out to be true? Has anyone here who owned a dog during childhood ever actually had that happen to them?

• 2 Yes, one of our dogs chews lots of things if they are left lying about. It is completely plausible. I’d bet it originated in truth about the same time as people started letting dogs live inside the home and homework was being done on paper. –  Jim Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 2:03
• Here is a piece that recounts a similar joke as early as 1905: slate.com/human-interest/2012/10/… . However, I do not have any evidence that this was the earliest occurrence. –  Benjamin Kuykendall Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 2:04
• It's been around for as long as there have been dogs and homework. –  Hot Licks Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 2:05
• That article would make a pretty good answer. –  DJClayworth Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 4:13

The phrase was actually built up through a series of sentences like, ' My dog chewed it up ' and ' My cat chewed it up and I had no time to do it over. '

These sentences were first used in the 1965 comic novel, Up the Down Staircase.

But it mainly became popular in 1974 when a book was written with the title, ' The Cat Ate My Gym. ' Many works had the same reference and only then did it become a classic punch.

It's funny, anyway.

• 2 1965 may be the origin of the two precise sentences you quote, but it is definitely not the origin of the trope, which is attested in written sources from the beginning of the 20th century. –  Janus Bahs Jacquet Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 16:15

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Fun fact: John Steinbeck’s dog ate the first draft of Of Mice and Men .

“The dog ate my homework” is, perhaps, the oldest excuse in the book. But it really happened to John Steinbeck! His dog, Toby, apparently ate half of the first manuscript of Of Mice and Men .

On this very day, May 27, 1936, he wrote :

Minor tragedy stalked. My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my manuscript book. Two months work to do over again. It set me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a manuscript I’m not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking … I’m not sure Toby didn’t know what he was doing when he ate the first draft. I have promoted Toby-dog to be a lieutenant-colonel in charge of literature.

Dog lover that he was, at least he was in good humor about it! (Maybe the moral here is: if your first draft gets destroyed, don’t  terrier self up about it!)

As for Toby, maybe he really was trying to tell his owner that the first draft was  ruff and he didn’t want Steinbeck to setter for it. Or he was hounding him to finish the thing, already! Maybe he just didn’t like that Lennie accidentally killed that innocent dog in the book.

Or maybe Toby somehow knew that later in life, John Steinbeck would go on to write a travelogue with his other dog, a poodle named Charley.

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Why not "the dog has eaten my homework"?

Why do we say "The dog ate my homework" without the perfect present?

I know the perfect present is used to describe an action in the past that influences the present (an explicit call to action). So should it be "The dog has eaten my homework (so I cannot read them out loud)". No?

Having that said, most of the time we tell about the past in relation to the present. I mean it seems most actions in the past have an influence to the present when we mention them. I feel I overuse it.

• present-perfect

• 3 My guess is it's just that non-native Anglophones wouldn't be at all likely to use this extremely tongue-in-cheek excuse. And only a non-native speaker would think of using the more complicated verb form here, because only a non-native speaker would be thinking of that "rule" about using Present Perfect to reflect relevance to time of utterance. Native speakers (especially, the ones who don't do their homework! :) are much more likely to stick to Simple Past in a context like this. –  FumbleFingers Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 16:43
• 3 ... here , by the way, is "evidence" that OP is quite right - almost no-one ever says The dog has eaten my homework , even though the context is almost always one where the past action is extremely relevant to "time of utterance" (precisely because it's being given as an excuse). It's an interesting question though! :) –  FumbleFingers Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 16:45
• I just ask why was this rooted in past simple the first place. We are all used to say " where have i heard this before " or " where have you been " but why are we used to past simple here? –  Elad Benda Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 17:27
• There is much understanding regarding the fact that the present perfect is used to mean in the past without mentioning when or referring to a specific act. So, it all boils down to how you want to say it. Do you just want to signal the past at time of speaking ?? OR : Do you want to refer to a one-time event in the past ?? That is the difference between the two. And this question has been answered many, many times on this site. –  Lambie Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 17:40
• 1 I don't see why a sarcastic teacher might not say, e.g., 'the dog has been eating your homework a lot lately'. –  Michael Harvey Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 18:03

It is commonly taught that the present perfect tense in English means "happened in the past but relevant in the present", but I think this is not quite right, as shown by your question. The present perfect indicates to the listener that you are thinking of the event in relation to a certain time interval, which begins somewhere in the past and extends to the present and possibly beyond. The event happened somewhere in this time interval, possibly even just now, as in "Jones has won the race!" (spoken as Jones crosses the finish line). Exactly what time interval is understood depends heavily on context. For more information, see this answer .

The reason we don't say "The dog has eaten my homework" is because that would suggest that it still might be possible to do something about it. We say "The dog ate my homework" because that places the event clearly in the past, severed from the present, implying that it is over and nothing can be done about it.

"The dog has eaten my homework" suggests that something could still be done about it, because it leads the listener to view the event as part of a time interval or process that continues up to and possibly beyond the present moment. For another example of this, see the "Lost keys" section of this answer . The simple past does not evoke that time interval, so it's a clearer way to imply that the homework is irretrievably gone. If there were still several hours until the deadline, you might say to another student, "The dog has eaten my homework" to ask for help—perhaps there is still enough time to redo the homework or maybe even recover it from the dog (the sort of thing that might happen in a comedy).

Note that there is no rule here, beyond "the present perfect invites the listener to think of the event within a time interval that continues up to and possibly beyond the present". There is no rule that the present perfect implies that something could still be done to change the result, nor a rule that the simple past tense implies that nothing can be done to change the result. The implications of the time interval vary enormously from context to context, calling upon understanding of the topic, what's at stake, other conventional usage, etc.

You should know that linguists and schoolteachers commonly hold to the theory that the present perfect means "happened in the past but relevant in the present". So, if you point out a time interval on an exam, you will likely be marked wrong. And you should know that linguists and schoolteachers are often wrong. But I could be wrong, too, of course. Much of English grammar is still not well understood scientifically, and no authority is completely reliable. I think you are taking the right course: learning from real usage, one sentence at a time, thinking about it, and sometimes asking what other people think. That is how everyone has learned how to really speak any language.

• Past perfect= a thing happened in the past without specifying when at the time of speaking . The dog eating the homework is not the usage where the thing extends to the present. It is the usage where the action occurs at a non-specified time in the past at the time of speaking. –  Lambie Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 18:23
• What about "I have heard you" - it's completed and there is nothing to do about it. –  Elad Benda Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 19:25
• @Lambie so I'm confused. No specific time, but still past simple? "ate" –  Elad Benda Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 19:26
• @Etad Benda Yes, I ate it. [But I am not telling you when: this am, last night, last week]. Try to think about past perfect and the "time of speaking"; I suggest you look up my many posts on this subject.....:) –  Lambie Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 19:32
• @EladBenda See the paragraph that starts "Note that there is no rule here" (and the linked answers). We would need to know more context to understand why someone chose to say "I have heard you" instead of "I heard you." Something nice about the dog/homework example is that a pretty rich context is clearly implied. –  Ben Kovitz Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 20:20

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It’s One Of Those Dog Ate My Homework Stories

“Did you know that ‘the dog ate my homework’ is the oldest trick in the book?” Mr. Shuffler asked, banging his hand on his desk. The gesture caused Shuffler’s  Best Middle School Vice Principal  mug to jump slightly. Petey tried not to laugh at the mug since he was under interrogation. 

Vice Principal Shuffler saw himself as a formidable authority figure, feared within the middle school. He was sure Petey would quickly break. However, Shuffler failed to notice the high-pitched whistle concealed in Petey’s left hand. Shuffler continued his questioning with increased volume, “Answer me, Petey, and be honest.”

“Sir, I have not read that book,” Petey said, again suppressing a smile.

“Well, students have been using that trick since at least the ’90s, and it does not work.”

“But sir, the dog did eat my homework.”

Shuffler growled. Then he reached into his desk and pulled up a tattered piece of paper with specifically placed holes. “How does this happen?”

“Sir, I can tell you how it didn’t happen. I didn’t put peanut butter on the homework, so my dog would eat it if that’s what you were thinking.”

“Who mentioned peanut butter?” Shuffler asked. He spun around dramatically in a circle at this to no effect. Petey kept quiet.

“We’ll come back to the peanut butter,” Shuffler said finally. “I want to move on to the quiz.”

 “The quiz, sir?” Petey asked.

“Yes, the quiz, the quiz! What happened during the quiz?”

“I’m not sure I recall—”

“The whole class started acting like they were dogs!”

Petey again suppressed a grin. “That was bizarre, sir. I think Ms. Marco had something to do with that. Do you have a copy of the quiz ?”

Shuffler fumed but pulled the quiz out of his desk. An onlooker would have wondered if Petey actually controlled this interrogation.

“Here’s the quiz. How was this Ms. Marco’s fault?” Shuffler yelled.

“Well, if you look at question canine.”

“Question what?”

“Oh, sorry, Ms. Marco cleverly changed question nine to K-9. Anyway, would you like to read question K-9, sir?”

Shuffler began to read. His tone shifted from angry to perplexed. 

“K-9: Whoever acts the most like a dog will receive ten bonus points.”

“As you can see, I don’t know what Ms. Marco was thinking. I never even got to K-9 because I am such a diligent student. I was just as surprised as anyone by the result.”

“You think that Ms. Marco wrote this question?” Shuffler asked.

“How could she not have? She’s the one that printed out the quiz.” Petey said. “And boy, do I hope she felt bad about what happened to Lisa. I mean, Sally biting her seemed uncalled for.

 I was appalled when Billy decided to eat my quiz. Although, given my personal experience, he most deserved the bonus points because dogs do eat my work a lot.”

Mr. Shuffler seethed. Petey continued.

“You haven’t even brought up ‘Bring your Dog to School Day.’ That was irresponsible of you and the rest of the administration. Didn’t you know that Phillip was allergic to dogs? He could barely breathe. I had the hardest time taking a test with all of those dogs around. One of the dogs, of course, eventually ate my assignment.”

“We did not organize ‘Bring your Dog to School Day’!” Shuffler yelled. He threw his arms back and knocked a certificate off the wall awarded for the  No More Big Mean Bullies training course.  “This was you. It was all you!”

Petey made a shocked face as Shuffler continued to yell.

“We can’t prove it, but today is the last day of the semester. You are taking your final in 20 minutes. You don’t know any of the material, and we’re going to find that out!”

While Mr. Shuffler talked, there was a commotion outside, but Shuffler was so in the zone he didn’t seem to notice.

“This was always going to end with you in my office, a failure. It’s all downhill for you, young man. How did you think this escalation was going to end?”

Before Petey could answer, there was screaming outside of the office. Mr. Shuffler jolted out of his rant, and then his phone rang. Petey knew how the escalation would end, and Mr. Shuffler was about to find out. 

Shuffler picked up the phone. His yell, a moment later, rang throughout the school over carnivorous canines growling and kids screaming for their lives.

“A PACK OF WOLVES?!”

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The Dog Did My Homework, Bigger - 6-Pack

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In the future, many animals can talk. Evan tricks his dog, Bart, into doing his homework. Or does he? A space explorer from twenty-fourth-century Earth is on a mission to bring civilization to the tiny people of planet Tau Ceti 4.

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I mean... I'm sure a dog has actually eaten homework but how common is it actually ?

Edit: Jesus I never had a post that's been actually answered so I just come on Reddit and see hundreds of notifications-- I had to give up upvoting and reading every comment dsjdj but the take away is that: Yes. Lot's of ripping, chewing, peeing by dogs, cats, and rabbits.

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My Dog Does My Homework

A Funny Dog Poem for Kids

From the book When the Teacher Isn't Looking

My dog does my homework at home every night. He answers each question and gets them all right.

There’s only one problem with homework by Rover. I can’t turn in work that’s been slobbered all over.

 — Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Reading Level: Grade 2 Topics: Animal Poems , School Poems Poetic Techniques: Anthropomorphism & Personification , Descriptive Poems , Irony Word Count: 41

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How to clean a dog's ears: A simple guide to using solution to keep your pet healthy

For some, an  ear cleaning  is a part of their daily, or at least weekly, self-care routine. But did you know your dog could need similar care?

Just like humans, pet's ears should be cleaned regularly for earwax buildup, hair growth and general dirt and grime. Earwax buildup in dogs can lead to health issues, such as  itchiness and ear infections , VCA Animal Hospitals reports.

Whether your pup's ears are pointy or floppy, here's how to keep them squeaky clean:

How to clean dogs' ears

Before you clean, make sure you have the right supplies.  Purina recommends  having the following handy:

• A dog-specific ear cleanser
• Damp cotton balls or pads
• An extra set of hands (if your dog doesn't sit still)

Avoid cotton swabs  when cleaning your dog's ears: They could push debris deeper into your pet's ear canals, according to Cornell University's Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center.  Never use hydrogen peroxide  as an ear cleanser since it can irritate healthy skin cells, the American Kennel Club also advises. Do use a veterinarian-approved product made specifically for dogs' ears.

Cornell University's Richard P. Riney Canine Health Center outlines a  three-step process  to clean your pup's ears:

1. Add ear cleaner.

Depending on your dog's ear type, hold it between your fingers so you can properly see the canal.  Purina recommends  wiping the entrance with a cloth to remove excess dirt and wax before inserting the cleaner. Then gently place the tip of the cleanser bottle above your dog's ear. If your dog cannot handle the solution directly into its ear, you can saturate cotton balls and place them inside the canal.

2. Massage the ear.

Once the cleaner is added, massage the base of your dog’s ear for  approximately 30 seconds , the American Kennel Club instructs. If you hear a squishing sound, the product is working to remove any buildup or debris. When you're done, let your dog shake its head. Have a towel nearby to minimize the mess.

3. Wipe the ear canal.

Use damp cotton balls or gauze to wipe any remaining dirt and grime. Only insert the tools "as far as your finger can easily fit,"  the Center reports . This will be about one knuckle in and then work your way outside the ear flap. 

Be sure to dry your dog's head and reward them with a treat.

How often to clean a dog’s ears

You should clean your dog's ears only when they're dirty. Over-cleaning can lead to  irritation or infection  of the ear canal, according to the American Kennel Club.

A healthy and clean dog ear should be  pink, odorless and not dirty or inflamed . If it has an odor, particularly a yeasty one, your pup's ears are due for a cleaning, the American Kennel Club recommends.

Different breeds need varying degrees of ear attention. Dogs with long ears, such as  beagles  or cocker spaniels, are  more prone to ear infections , the American Kennel Club reports. Cleaning a dog's ears can prevent an infection, not treat one.

If you suspect your dog might have an ear infection, fleas, ear mites or an allergic reaction, consult a veterinarian.

How do I know if my dog has an ear infection?

If your dog has any of the  following symptoms , contact your veterinarian:

• Redness in the ear
• Itching in one or both ears
• Excessive headshaking
• Discharge or increased wax in the ear
• Discomfort when the ear is touched

How to administer ear medication for dogs

If your veterinarian prescribes an ear medication, they will provide instructions on how, and how often, to apply it.

However, here is a general guide on how to administer ear medication to dogs, according to  VCA Animal Hospitals :

• Grab your dog's ear to expose and straighten the canal.
• Apply the medication per the veterinarian's instructions. Try to avoid placing the bottle's tip directly into your dog's ear. This can lead to the spread of bacteria or yeast.
• Hold the ear vertically and massage its base for around 30 seconds.
• Repeat the process for the other ear.

Contributing: Jacob Livesay

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