29 Greatest Songs About Dogs: Greatest Canine Tunes of All Time

Dogs have long been called man’s best friend, and there is no doubting the close link between humans and canines. This link has led to songwriters and performers regularly featuring dogs in their songs.

Below we have listed 29 of the best songs about dogs we could find, including songs from almost every genre.

Top 29 Greatest Songs About Dogs

1. Atomic Dog

Atomic Dog by George Clinton is a funk song, released in 1982 on the Computer Games album. What’s especially striking about the song is that band members ad-libbed the lyrics as they went along, coming up with some unique and innovative words.

2. Blue

Blue, by Peter, Paul, and Mary, was released in 1975 and espouses the benefits of keeping a pet dog. The song is amusing, light-hearted, and surprisingly catchy. The band describes it as a children’s song, but it’s an enjoyable folk song for listeners of all ages.

3. Cracker Jack

Cracker Jack is a song by Dolly Parton about a stray dog called Cracker Jack. The lyrics suggest Cracker Jack wasn’t the best-looking dog but that it was a special dog to Dolly, nevertheless. Although the song wasn’t that popular on its release, it did enjoy a resurgence when it was played on Dolly’s Netflix show.

4. Gonna Buy Me a Dog

Gonna Buy Me a Dog is a typically fun Monkees song. Micky Dolenz was trying to sing a straight version of the song but was interrupted by Davy Jones who interrupted and added his one-liners to the version.

5. Good Dogs

Good Dogs, by Jameson Rodgers, is a song about the fleeting relationship between owners and their dogs. Rodgers sings about how a truck can last years with maintenance and a relationship can last a lifetime with work, but that the relationship between owner and dog only lasts a relatively short time.

6. Gypsy, Joe, and Me

Dolly clearly has a thing for dogs. Gypsy, Joe, and Me is a song about herself and the time she spent with her boyfriend Joe, and her dog, Gypsy. In the song, she sings about how close she was to her dog.

7. Hound Dog

Hound Dog by Big Mama Thornton isn’t strictly about dogs but is about a cheating boyfriend, the hound dog of the song’s title. The original title was a bluesy track but when it was covered by Elvis Presley, it became a rock ‘n’ roll classic.

8. How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?

How Much Is That Doggy in The Window is a novelty song from 1953 singing about seeing a dog in a shop window and wanting to buy it. As well as Patti singing, the song’s credits include “Barks by Joe and Mac.”

9. I Love My Dog

I Love My Dog compares the relationship between a man and his dog with that of a man and his girlfriend. It looks at the unconditional love offered by the dog and how much reward you get for treating a dog right.

10. I Want a Dog

I Want a Dog is, on the face of it, a song about the benefits of owning a dog when one lives alone and how the dog provides companionship. Dig a little deeper and the song is really about loneliness and the difficulties it brings.

11. I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog (To Take the Place of You)

I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog (To Take the Place of You) is a blues song about buying a dog to replace an ex-lover who has left. Some of the lyrics talk about teaching the dog to scare off the ex-lover when she comes back around.

12. Like My Dog

Like My Dog is a song by Billy Currington that compares having a dog to having a girlfriend, specifically looking at the benefits of having a dog as a partner.

13. Little Boys Grow Up, and Dogs Get Old

Little Boys Grow Up, and Dogs Get Old is a country hit released by Luke Bryan in 2015. It celebrates the bond between a Black Labrador and his young owner. It’s also something of a sad song that may cause a few tears when Bandit gets old and passes away.

14. Love Someone (The Edgar Cut)

Love Someone (The Edgar Cut) is another modern country song. Although it initially comes across as a traditional love song, Eldredge released an official video for the song a month after its release and the video showed Eldredge was actually singing about the love he had for his dog.

15. Maggie’s Song

Country singers love their dogs with Chris Stapleton’s Maggie’s Song being another in a growing list of country hits about the singers’ dogs. In this case, the song is a tribute to Stapleton’s dog, Maggie, that takes listeners through the aging of the dog, as well as the bond that develops between dog and owner.

16. Man of the Hour

Man of the Hour is another hit that sounds like a classic love song, as though Jones is singing about her boyfriend or husband. But listeners who read between the lines will know that it is about the dog that features on the album cover: in this case, a huge St. Bernard.

17. Martha My Dear

Paul McCartney wrote Martha, My Dear, about his sheepdog Martha. Although he never mentions this in the song, fans of the songwriter knew exactly who he was referring to in the lyrics. Like most Beatles tracks, it is catchy and entertaining and has hidden meaning.

18. Ol’ Red

Ol’ Red, by Blake Shelton, has a very specific storyline, in which the singer gets sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing his wife’s boyfriend. While serving his time, he befriends a warden, who tasks him with looking after a dog, named Ol’ Red. The song then goes on to show how the prisoner used Ol’ Red to aid in his escape. It’s an odd story, but it is a catchy country tune.

19. Old Blue

The Byrds, who were censored for their songs about drugs, also had a thing about writing songs related to dogs. Old Blue is one of three such songs, and arguably the best of the bunch. It’s a bluegrass ditty that celebrates the bond between the singer and his dog.

20. Old King

While some songs about dogs might be written about made-up dogs or generalize the love that owners and dogs share, Old King, by Neil Young, celebrated the relationship he and his family had with their dog. Old King was only a nickname for the dog, which was really called Elvis.

21. Old Shep

Elvis clearly loved dogs, and he first showed this love at the age of 10 when he performed Old Shep, originally written and performed by Red Foley in 1935, at a talent contest. Elvis placed 5^th. He performed the song again at a school talent contest when he was 16, and then recorded and released it officially in 1956.

22. Rover

Jethro Tull never really recorded anything that might be considered normal. His album, Heavy Horses, is a prime example and is an album full of songs written from the perspective of different farm animals. The song Rover was written as though it was performed by the family dog, Rover.

23. Seamus

Prog Rockers Pink Floyd were somewhat derided for the song, Seamus, but it warrants a special place on the list for featuring the vocals of the dog in question. Seamus was about Small Faces’ guitarist Steve Marriott’s dog, who could howl on queue, and the song is generally considered one of Pink Floyd’s worst because Seamus’s howling drowns out much of the rest of the track.

24. The Dog Song

The Dog Song, released by Nellie McKay in 2004, is virtually a handbook of how to care for a dog. McKay sings about walking the dog. It also highlights how owning a dog can combat loneliness and misery and is definitely an ode to pet canines.

25. The Floyd Song (Sunrise)

The Floyd Song was inspired by the passing of Miley’s dog, Floyd. Floyd was an Alaskan Klee Kai that Miley adopted when he was a puppy. He was a regular on Cyrus’s social media, featured in the We Can’t Stop music video and Cyrus even had pictures of Floyd’s face printed on marshmallows that she threw into the crowd at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

And, to top it off, she wrote a tribute song, The Floyd Song, to her puppy after he died in 2014.

26. The More Boys I Meet

The More Boys I Meet is a song by Carrie Underwood that considers how the more boys Underwood meets, the more she ends up loving her dog.

27. The Puppy Song

The Puppy Song was originally written and recorded by Harry Nilsson in 1969, and in it, he sings about wanting a puppy and a human friend. The song was originally written by Nilsson for Mary Hopkin, at Paul McCartney’s request. She released the song on her album, Post Card, but Nilsson recorded his own version in 1969.

28. Walking the Dog

Gershwin wrote Walking the Dog, and a host of other tracks, for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Shall We Dance. The song imagines 24 hours in the life of a dog and is used in the film when a dog is being walked on a luxury liner.

29. Who Let the Dogs Out

Who Let the Dogs Out is a repetitive, amusing song that reached number 2 in the UK charts and features multiple lines of people barking like dogs. The lyrics, written by Anslem Douglas, are actually about men who catcall women and the responses they get, and the song is considered something of a feminist anthem. While the track isn’t really about dogs, they do feature prominently in the lyrics, and the song led to the repeating of the barking at parties and in the streets.

Conclusion

Dogs are a popular source of inspiration for songs in every genre, with country music seemingly especially taken with the bond between humans and dogs. Above are 29 of the best songs about dogs, but there are certainly many more.

Featured Image Credit: Milica Nistoran, Shutterstock