Can Anyone Help with a Song with the line, “Pretty Little Doggie-woggie, Handsome as a Polly-wolly”?
May 11th, 2017

Dan Hughes wrote:

When I was a child, my grandmother (born in rural Indiana about 1900) sang me a song about a small dog being killed by running under a horse’s hooves. I think she said they sang it in school. Some of the lyrics, as I remember them:

Chorus:
With a bow-wow and a ky-oh, pretty little doggie-woggie, handsome as a polly-wolly
Bow-wow and a ky-oh, don’t abuse the darling little poodle.

Verse:
Every dog must have its day, and the poodle’s came at last
He got too close to the horse’s heels one day as I went driving past
Yes, he got too close to the horse’s heels, and they kicked him in the head
And we found him in the garden, dead, dead, dead.

Spoken:
Yes, dead.
Kicked in the head by a horse’s heels.
(More follows, including a moral, but I can’t remember this next – final – part.)

There is an initial verse, explaining that the little dog belongs to the girlfriend of the singer, but I can’t remember any of the lyrics to that verse.

Pretty grisly, I know, but I’ve often wondered if I’m the only person still alive who remembers that song.

Thanks!

Dan

If anyone can help with the lyrics of this song or if you’d like to share anything you know about it, please comment below.

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

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One Response to “Can Anyone Help with a Song with the line, “Pretty Little Doggie-woggie, Handsome as a Polly-wolly”?”

  1. Howard Bubb Says:
    December 17th, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    Wish I could find the whole song but, thanks for the last verse. Here’s the first as my family sang it.

    I went to see my love one day, she met me at the door.
    I heard a pit pat in the hall and then a dreadful roar.
    And when the door it opened, oh what to my surprise,
    Out jumped a poodle dog an bit me in the thigh.

    With a bow-wow wow wow wow wow.
    Ky-yie yie yie yie yie.
    Pretty little doggie woggie,
    Handsome as a dolly wolly

    I’m sure this has morphed over 6- years and I hope someone has the REAL lyrics.

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