It's dogged as does it...

I am having so much fun working on posts that has the phrase/idiom "dog". The challenge lies with finding a story that goes with the phrase. I hope that you enjoy reading about dog phrases and idioms as much as I enjoy writing about it.

Today's dog phrase "It's dogged as does it" is actually a colloquial term (according to the Oxford dictionary) and means Persistence succeeds. In fact, the word "dogged" is defined as "tenacious, grimly persistent". All dogs can definitely relate to that. In fact, judging from all the hilarious stories I read on your blogs about escapes, foods, toys, etc, I reckon all dogs' humans can attest to that too!

We dogs are a tenacious lot - doggedly determined to pursue all means necessary to achieve our goals of:

1)Getting our humans to take us with them when they go out
2)Expressing our displeasure at being left alone (when the above fails)
2)Getting to food
3)Getting to toys
4)Getting to other dogs (especially during mating season...)

Just the other day, in the face of adversity (Ok..., I'm being a bit melodramatic here), my humans & I doggedly pursued our right to walk in our beloved hill. It was late, around 7pm. My humans thought that since there aren't many people walking in the hills at that time of the day, we would all go up the paved trail in the hills. Lo and behold, we were stopped at the guard house because ..."GASP"... I was a dog! The man pointed to the Sign which had a picture of a dog with a big "X" in front of it I was so hurt...It might as well have been my picture with a big "X" in front of it.

My humans tried to assure me that it was nothing personal. That's just the way it is in our country. Dogs aren't welcomed in many places. Anyway, no time to pout. We were doggedly determined that we would walk up the hill. Fortunately, dad knows the hill like the back of his hand, so, we back-tracked and went into a small path leading into the jungle. There was still some daylight left so we could see our way. We went on a parallel path on the jungle trail and after about 10 minutes, made our way back to the brightly-lit paved road, way past the guard house. Aaha! Outwitted you Mr. Guard Man! You're forgetting you're dealing with a beagle! After all, beagles are famous for our tenacity and stubborness.

Anyway, we had a great walk. On the way down, we hoped that Mr Guard Man would have gone off for dinner. No such luck. We had no choice but to use the same jungle trail to bypass the guard house again. Only this time, it was pitch black. Since my humans weren't expecting to use the jungle trails, they didn't bring any torch with them. But I wasn't worried. I'm a beagle remember? Beagles are well-known for our powerful noses. Besides, dad knows the trail like the back of his hand...GULP...I hope...Every cloud has a silver lining, in our case, our silver lining came in the form of fire-flies. Because it was so dark in the jungle, we could actually see fire flies as we walked. What a treat!

There you have it - My story about "It's dogged as does it" - Persistence pays off!