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The phrase “gone to the dogs” originated in ancient China, where dogs were banned from inside city walls. Stray dogs survived by scavenging for food and forming packs. Criminals who were banished also ended up living among the dogs.
Even people who aren’t interested in betting like to go to horse races to see those sinewy, elegant creatures and their well-dressed, elegant owners take to the track. It’s the perfect opportunity for anyone’s sociologist to get out there and play. After experiencing the boxes at Saratoga or sipping mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby, a visit to the dog track is, to say the least, a disappointment. The idiom comes to mind, “This place has really gone to the dogs;” in other words, it’s depressing, dreary, and trashed.
Ironically enough, the expression “gone to the dogs” was born an untold number of years before dog tracks were popularized. Linguists trace the beginning of the idiom back to ancient China. While dogs have always been a part of human society, they haven’t always been a particularly welcome part.
Long ago, city walls in China not only kept the enemy out, they also kept out dogs, which were banned from inside city walls by law. There’s no question that the wealthy and well-connected could hide their shih tzus within their family compounds, but dogs that didn’t have owners to hide them and feed them delicate morsels by hand ended up on the wrong side of the wall. . Because garbage was dumped on the wall on a regular basis, these wild creatures were able to survive.
For a dog, survival isn’t just about food; it’s about belonging to a pack. There was no doubt a lot of bickering to determine who would be the better dog, with the lesser canines falling into their various social places. While not the best of lives, and certainly not as luxurious as it might have been within the royal courts and homes of the wealthy and cultured, the dogs themselves had “gone to dogs,” mated, raised puppies, and always dominated plus the lands beyond the walls.
In ancient times, criminals were usually treated in one of two ways. Depending partly on the severity of the crime and partly on how well connected the criminal or his family were, the options were death or banishment. Thieves, murderers, and the like who were not executed were literally turned away. While no doubt some of these undesirables have made their way to other cities and other lives, others have literally gone to the dogs, fighting them over anything edible among the garbage, wearing tattered, dirty clothes, and living lives far below what a time had been.
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