tin dog

From tin + dog.

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

tin dog (plural tin dogs)

1. (Australia) A noise-making device, often constructed ad hoc from materials to hand, used by a farmer to get sheep or cattle moving.[1]
   • 2005 October 30, Bruce Simpson, interviewed on Landline, Australian Broadcasting Commission, transcript,

     I was with the cattle on my own at that stage, and to get them going, I inserted a few stones in the quart pot and used that as a tin dog. It got the cattle moving.

2. (Australia) Alternative form of tinned dog, a disparaging term for canned meat.
   • 1993, Don Munday, Tin Dog, Damper and Dust, autobiography.

• doting, tin god