Songfacts®:

• This tribute to White City's dog track was inspired by Pet Townshend's friend Chris Morphet, who had a fascination with greyhound racing. Morphet contributed harmonica and backing vocals to the tune.
• The song was not a major commercial success at the time of its release and has been virtually disowned by the group since. According to Roger Daltrey, Townshend had Small Faces bassist Ronnie Lane in mind when he wrote it. The vocalist told Uncut magazine: "He was such a lovely geezer, Ronnie, they were great guys, The Faces, all of them. But I think it'd have been better if Pete had just given the song to Ronnie in the first place. As a Who record, it was all a bit frivolous for me."
• A musically unrelated sequel "Dogs Part 2" was later released as the B-side of "Pinball Wizard" in 1969.