Dog idioms podcast Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That's English!, the Spanish Ministry of Education's official distance learning English course. To find out more about That's English! go to www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. In our podcast about Portion Distortion, we mentioned the expression doggy bag, which refers to the bag or container which some restaurants provide their customers with to take home the leftover food from their meal. This is just one of the many expressions that we use in English related to dogs. In today's podcast, we are going to have a look at a few more. Many dog idioms have negative connotations. For example, to lead a dog's life means that you have a difficult and unhappy life. For example, we could say: Last year, he lost his job and his house, and now he's leading a dog's life, trying to live on state benefits. Similarly, when we say that something has gone to the dogs, we mean that it has deteriorated badly. For example, we might say: The restaurant has really gone to the dogs since they changed chefs. It's not half as good as it used to be. Likewise, to make a dog's dinner (or a dog's breakfast) is to make a mess or do a very poor piece of work. We could say: The advertising agency's presentation was a real dog's dinner, full of spelling mistakes and statistical inaccuracies. Another expression is to be in the dog house, which means that someone is annoyed with you. It is usually used with a dose of humour in a domestic context. For example, it is very common for husbands to be in the dog house for forgetting birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc. We might say: Johnny was really in the dog house with his wife, after he forgot to buy her a gift for their anniversary. As we've seen, many of the expressions related to dogs are negative or derogatory. An underdog, for example, is a person who has very little money, power or social status or is not considered likely to win a match or competition. We often use underdog in this way when we talk about sports. For example: In the King's Cup football competition in Spain, many people enjoy watching matches where the first division teams are beaten by an underdog from the second division. The expression the tail wags the dog also refers to situations in which the least important member or part of an organisation controls or greatly influences the rest. For example, we could say: As the government needed the two Green Party's members' votes to gain a majority in parliament, the ecologists forced the prime minister to implement all their environmental and social policies. It was a case of the tail wagging the dog. Another expression that refers to a dog's tail is to have one's tail between one's legs, which means to feel humiliated or defeated. If we go back to a sporting context, we might say: England's national football players came back on the first flight home with their tails between their legs after being knocked out in the first round of the World Cup. By contrast, and on a much happier note, we use the idiom like a dog with two tails when someone is delighted about something. For example, we could say: She was like a dog with two tails when she found out that she had won the prize. And to mention just one more expression with tail, we use to chase one's tail when somebody rushes around doing things but to no effect. We might say: I got up really early this morning to finish my project, but I have made no progress at all. I seem to have been chasing my tail all day. Every dog has its day is a proverb which also has a positive connotation as we use it to say that everyone will be lucky or successful at some time in their lives. We might say: After working as key account manager for many years, he was promoted to head of the sales department. Every dog has its day. In fact, if a person becomes very successful, especially in the business world, we say that they are top dog. Another common idiomatic expression related to dogs, to a dog's bark in fact, is to say that a person's bark is worse than his or her bite, which we use to refer to people who seem to have an aggressive or intimidating manner by what they look like or what they say, but who are really much more pleasant than the impression they give. We might say: The boss is always so serious and stern in the office, I was surprised to see how friendly he was at the Christmas party. His bark is clearly worse than his bite. Likewise, another expression with bark that we use is to bark up the wrong tree when we follow a mistaken course of action. For example, we could say: She asked her boss for information about the company's pension scheme but he told her she was barking up the wrong tree as he had no idea and that she should talk to the Human Resources Department. If a person behaves like a dog in the manger, it means that he or she prevents other people from using a possession that would be useful for them, even though he or she has no use for it. This expression comes from a 16th century fable where a dog prevents an ox and a horse from eating the hay, which it won't eat itself, by lying in the manger. So we could use it in the following way: Even though she could not drive herself, she refused to let her grandson use her husband's car after he had died. She became a real dog in the manger. And finally, another expression we use is to let sleeping dogs lie. This idiom expresses the idea that it is better not to act or interfere in a situation if it is not creating any problems, because any interference could cause difficulties to arise. For example, we might say: After replacing the customer's computer for the third time, the after-sales team decided not to do the usual customer satisfaction follow up, just in case. They thought it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. Well, we hope you have found this podcast useful. We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!