Get Along, Little Dogies carries the sound of the cattle trail: a steady forward motion, a cowboy calling to his herd, and a refrain that stays with you. At No. 46 in our Top 100 Western Songs countdown, it belongs to an older world than records or movie cowboys. The name beside it is Owen Wister, but his connection to this traditional song needs a little explanation.
Get Along, Little Dogies: what happened in 1893?
Dave’s Music Database lists the song at No. 46, pairing it with Wister and the year 1893. That year refers to a documented appearance in his journal, rather than a record release. Although the list labels him a writer, the song’s original author is unknown.
The Kansas Historical Society’s “Cowboy Ballads” study identifies Wister’s 1893 reference as the earliest then noted. It also explains that he learned the melody from a boy in Texas. Wister helped preserve a song already being sung; that is different from composing it.
What are “little dogies”?
The title does not refer to dogs. In cowboy language, dogies are orphaned or undersized calves. The singer addresses the cattle as they move toward a new home, giving the song a mixture of encouragement, dry humor, and the weariness of working on the trail.
It is also known as “Git Along, Little Dogies” and “Whoopie Ti Yi Yo.” As Wikipedia’s song history explains, it is a traditional cowboy ballad. Its different spellings and versions reflect a song passed between singers, rather than one fixed performance.
Owen Wister and the preservation of cowboy songs
Wister is remembered as the author of The Virginian. His journal also provides evidence of the music he encountered in the West. For this entry, the important distinction is simple: 1893 documents the song’s existence; it does not establish its date of composition.
John A. Lomax later included the song in Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, first published in 1910. The Library of Congress preserves a digitized copy of that collection, a useful window into the repertoire that collectors gathered from oral tradition.
Why it belongs among the great Western songs
The attraction is in the working cowboy’s voice. The song gives cattle, dust, distance, and daily labor a place in music, without needing a movie plot. Its familiar refrain makes that world easy to enter, even for listeners who have never ridden a cattle trail.
Continue our Western countdown with Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, another reflection on the people and memories of the West.
Listen to “Get Along, Little Dogies”
Here is Pete Seeger’s later interpretation, presented as official audio from Smithsonian Folkways. It illustrates the traditional song discussed here; it is not an Owen Wister recording from 1893.