Git Along, Little Dogies
Cowboy ballad
"Git Along, Little Dogies" is a traditional cowboy ballad, also performed under the title "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo." It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 827. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
The "dogies" referred to in the song are runty or orphaned calves.
History
It is believed to be a variation of a traditional Irish ballad about an old man rocking a cradle. The cowboy adaptation is first mentioned in the 1893 journal of Owen Wister, author of The Virginian. Through Wister's influence, the melody and lyrics were first published in 1910 in John Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.
Historian Richard White borrowed a line from the song as the title of his 1991 book It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West.
Notable performances
The earliest commercial recording of the song was by Harry "Mac" McClintock in 1929 (released on Victor V-40016 as "Get Along, Little Doggies").
Roy Rogers performed the song in the 1940 film West of the Badlands.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Git Along, Little Dogies” as cowboy ballad. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as cowboy ballad. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5565013. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1910, 1991 and 1929.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Git Along, Little Dogies”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Git Along, Little Dogies primary sources, Git Along, Little Dogies archive and Along research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Git Along, Little Dogies”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Git Along, Little Dogies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.