my dog ate my homework lie

Where Did The Phrase “The Dog Ate My Homework” Come From?

Dogs are known as man’s best friend. Dogs keep us safe, are hard workers … and can provide a handy excuse in a pinch. Maybe that’s why versions of the classic expression the dog ate my homework have been around for hundreds of years.

Today, the dog ate my homework is used as a stock example of the kind of silly excuses schoolchildren give for why their work isn’t finished. Very rarely do people say, “the dog ate my homework” and expect it to be taken literally; they use the expression as an example of a typically flimsy excuse.

So where did the phrase come from?

Forrest Wickman, a writer for Slate , describes the legend of the 6th-century Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise as the alleged first recorded “the dog ate my homework” story. According to the tale, Saint Ciarán had a tame young fox that would take his writings to his master for him. One day, the fox grew up and decided to eat the leather strap binding the writings together instead. Still, this tale is more Garden-of-Eden parable and less terrible schoolchild excuse.

The notion that dogs will eat just about anything, including paper, turns up in lots of stories over the centuries. An example comes from The Humors of Whist , published in 1808 in Sporting Magazine . In the story, the players are sitting around playing cards when one of them remarks that their companion would have lost the game had the dog not eaten the losing card. Good boy.

Some attribute the creation of the dog ate my homework to a joke that was going around at the beginning of the 20th century. In a tale found as far back as an 1894 memoir by Anglican priest Samuel Reynolds Hole, a preacher gives a shortened version of a sermon because a dog got into his study and ate some of the pages he had written. However, the clerk loved it because they had been wanting the preacher to shorten his sermons for years.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first example of the dog ate my homework excuse in print can be found in a speech given by retiring headmaster James Bewsher in 1929 and published in the Manchester Guardian : “It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework.” The way this comment is phrased suggests that the whole dog ate my homework story had been around for some time before it was put in print.

When was the word homework created?

But in order for a dog to eat homework specifically, homework had to be invented (oh, and how we wish it hadn’t been). True, the word homework , as in what we call today housework , appears as early as 1653. But homework , as in school exercises to be done at home, isn’t found until 1852. Once we had homework , it was only a matter of time before the dog was accused of eating it.

How we use this phrase now

No matter the origin, sometime in the 1950s, the expression became set as the dog ate my homework . This inspired any number of riffs on the theme, like my cow ate my homework or my brother ate my homework . In the 1960s, the dog ate my homework continued to gain popularity. The expression popped up a couple times in politics over the years, like when President Reagan said to reporters in 1988, “I had hoped that we had marked the end of the ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ era of Congressional budgetry … but it was not to be.”

It seems unlikely that the dog ate my homework was ever used consistently or frequently by actual schoolchildren. In fact, it’s the unlikeliness of the story that makes it so funny and absurd as a joke. Instead, teachers and authority figures appear to have cited the dog ate my homework many times over the years as such a bad excuse they can’t believe students are really using it.

In the 21st century, students don’t spend as much time working with physical pen and paper as they once did. That may contribute to the decline in the use of the phrase. So, maybe soon we’ll see a new equally absurd phrase pop up. Come on Zoomers, you’ve got this.

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Why Do We Say “The Dog Ate My Homework”?

The history of the delinquent schoolchild’s favorite excuse..

Did this sad Lab eat your homework?

iStockphoto.

Viacom announced on Monday that Mitt Romney had declined to appear on Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President special this year, citing time constraints. President Obama’s camp pounced on Romney’s decision, saying, “Kids demand details … ‘The dog ate my homework’ just doesn’t cut it when you’re running for president. ” When did “my dog ate my homework” become known as schoolchildren’s favorite excuse?

The 1970s. Delinquent schoolchildren and adults have been blaming their shortcomings on their pets for more than a century, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that “my dog ate my homework” came to be considered the No. 1 likely story. One of the first sad sacks who was said to blame his dog for his own ill-preparedness was a priest. In this anecdote, which appeared as early as 1905, a clergyman pulls his clerk aside after a service to ask him whether his sermon seemed long enough. The clerk assures him that it was very nice, “just the right length,” and the priest is relieved. “I am very glad to hear you say that,” he says, “because just before I started to come here my dog got hold of my sermon and ate some of the leaves .” The story was repeated again and again . The first citation of the excuse in the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1929 article from the Manchester Guardian , which reads, “It is a long time since I have had the excuse about the dog tearing up the arithmetic homework.” In Bel Kaufman’s best-selling 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase , a list of students’ excuses for not having their homework includes “ My dog went on my homework ” and “ My dog chewed it up .” Even in 1965, however, it was still just another excuse.

“My dog ate my homework” became known as the quintessential far-fetched excuse in the next decade, when the phrase was used over and over . In a 1976 account of the Watergate tapes, E.C. Kennedy describes listening to President Nixon “ working on the greatest American excuse since the dog ate my homework .” A 1977 article from Alaska’s Daily News-Miner describes the difficulty students faced in coming up with a new excuse since “ ‘My dog ate my term paper’ is no longer acceptable .”

The excuse was alluded to more and more throughout the 1980s. A 1982 Time magazine column on excuses suggested that “The dog ate my homework is a favorite with schoolchildren,” while a 1987 New York Times column about how students were starting to blame malfunctioning computers and printers quoted one teacher as saying she recently received “ a note from a student’s mother saying the dog ate his homework .” Even the president picked up on the trend: When Congress pushed spending approval to the last minute in 1988, Ronald Reagan complained to reporters, “ I had hoped that we had marked the end of the ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ era of Congressional budgetry … but it was not to be .” It was all over television, with references to the excuse on shows like The Simpsons and Full House . By 1989, the narrator of Saved by the Bell theme was singing, “ And the dog ate all my homework last night .”

The phrase continued to grow more popular. Between 1990 and 2000, the New York Times wrote articles with headlines such as “ Beyond ‘Dog Ate My Homework’ ” and “ Homework Help Sites (Or, the Dog Ate My U.R.L.) ,” while The New Yorker described one criminal’s accounts of his wrongdoings as having “a decided my-dog-ate-my-homework quality.” Children’s books tried to capitalize on the trend with titles like A Dinosaur Ate My Homework , Aliens Ate My Homework , Godzilla Ate My Homework , and My Teacher Ate My Homework , daring to use the term to promote reading and education. Such titles have continued into the 2000s, but in recent years the phrase seems to finally be losing steam .

Bonus Explainer: An Obama spokesperson also said, “ It’s no surprise Romney decided to play hookey .” Why do we call cutting school “playing hookey”? To play hookey began as an Americanism in the 19 th century. The earliest known citation comes from 1848, from John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms , where it was said to mean “to play truant” and noted to be “ a term used among schoolboys, chiefly in the State of New York .” Word historians usually suggest that it’s from to hook it meaning to run away , a term as old as the Revolutionary War. However, others have proposed that it might derive from the Dutch expression hoekje spelen , the Dutch expression for “hide and seek”—especially since playing hooky emerged in New York during a time when it had a larger Dutch population.

Got a question about today’s news?  Ask the Explainer .

Explainer thanks Barry Popik, Jesse Sheidlower of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Ben Zimmer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com .

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From Our Listeners

Sometimes the dog really does eat your homework.

Last week, we brought you the story of how the phrase "The Dog Ate My Homework" came to be and how it morphed into a palpably ridiculous excuse. Turns out, sometimes its not an excuse at all. Weekend Edition host Scott Simon has a few stories from our listeners that swear, honest, the dog did eat their homework.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Last week, we tried to trace the origins of that legendary excuse "the dog ate my homework."

FORREST WICKMAN: One of the first examples is this guy. Saint Kieran, who around the fifth century had this fox that he found. And he started taking the fox around and at some point, the fox ate his Psalms.

SIMON: That's Forrest Wickman, a writer for Slate Magazine, who researched one of the most palpably ridiculous phrases of all time. But as many listeners told us, sometimes even ridiculous things can be true. They can happen to you.

JACQUELINE MOSS: My name is Jacqueline Moss, and I'm from Cumberland, Maine. And my dog really did eat my homework.

SIMON: Her beloved Labrador, Dusty, turned out to have a taste for history.

MOSS: When I was in sixth grade, we had to make a project for ancient civilization, and it was a Sumerian brick. I made it, and I left it on the radiator overnight. I came downstairs in the morning, and it had disappeared. And my dog - my Labrador was looking very guilty.

SIMON: But reasonably healthy. As it turns out, the formula her teacher gave her for Sumerian brick, was more like a recipe for a historically big dog biscuit.

MOSS: Yeah, she was fine. (LAUGHTER) There was nothing bad in it. It was just food coloring and flour and oats, salt. (LAUGHTER) So it must have been like, what she dreamed of because it was the size of a loaf of bread, and there was nothing left.

SIMON: Her teacher accepted her excuse. Harry Atwood, a high school English teacher in Dayton, Virginia, says he's heard all sorts of excuses from unprepared students. But one stands out. One day some years ago, he writes, a student came to class with the excuse that his parents had burned his homework. The following day, the local newspaper reported that the boy's family was out for a winter's drive high up in the Allegheny Mountains, and had punctured their gas tank on a rock. Soon out of gas, out of cell phone range and in below-freezing temperatures, the boy's family had used the contents of his backpack to start a fire. Excuse accepted. And finally...

LINDA BECKER: Hi, this is Linda Becker from Williamstown, Massachusetts. My dog ate my students' homework.

SIMON: That wasn't an audio glitch. She explains.

BECKER: I came home from teaching one day, and left my bag on the floor in the kitchen; went about my business. When I returned to the kitchen, my puppy - with his little, needle-like teeth - had pulled some student papers out of my bag, and chewed them up. Imagine the embarrassment of having to tell students, my dog ate your homework.

(SOUNDBITE OF BARKING DOG MUSIC)

SIMON: Well, Ms. Becker, I'm sure they'll accept your excuse, just this once.

SIMON: This is NPR News.

Copyright © 2012 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

April 18, 2014

Contemporary Fiction , Education

The Dog Ate My Homework

It seemed like the most plausible excuse at the time: blame the new dog for eating up my now overdue essay. But then I just had to embellish...

Karen Donley-Hayes

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The fact of the matter was, I didn’t have anyone else to blame. So I blamed Roscoe–perhaps ill-advised, him being my father’s K-9 partner-in-waiting, but I had completely forgotten my homework. I wasn’t in the habit of lying or putting blame where it didn’t belong, but I was caught off guard–daydreaming about Roscoe, in fact. My third grade teacher now loomed over my desk, expectant, her hand outstretched, fingers wiggling. And in my deer-in-the-headlights stare, with Miss Underwood frowning down at me, the words blurted out all on their own.

“Roscoe ate it.”

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“What?” Miss Underwood scowled more, if that were possible. She planted her fists against her ample hips and leaned in, hovering over me.

I blinked, swallowed a spitless lump in my throat, and having already lied, promptly repeated myself. “Roscoe ate it,” I said with slightly more conviction.

Miss Underwood stood stiff, smack dab in front of my desk, so close I should have been able to smell the little flowers on her dress. I had an overpowering impulse to move away from her, but my chair shackled me to the spot. I stared at the vibrant gladiola sprouting out from beneath Miss Underwood’s belt, and felt the entire class’s attention span shake from all else and swoop down on me.

“Mister Pike. You are not lying to me, are you?” It was more a challenge than a question.

Miss Underwood absolutely terrified me–almost as much as did the prospect of acquiring the entire class’s ridicule or getting caught in a bald-faced lie–and such terror can be a remarkable survival mechanism, because my brain spun a web and my mouth spewed it out without so much as consulting with me. I sat, breathless and rapt with the rest of the class, listening to this story unfold.

“Oh, no ma’am,” a voice–my voice–poured out of me, my brain, frenetic, only barely keeping a syllable ahead of my mouth. “I wrote my report on the metamorphosis of tadpoles into frogs,” I heard. (It was a good thing I had recently become fascinated by this amphibious process and had not only been reading about it but observing it in the natural setting of our backyard.) “And I took the paper with me to the pond so that I could look at them and draw pictures to show the stages, and Roscoe came with me, and I had a tadpole on the top of the paper so I could trace it and Roscoe saw it and before I knew what happened he jumped on it and swallowed it whole, and the paper.”

I shifted my bug-eyed gaze up the floral landscape to the teacher’s face. Miss Underwood remained completely still.

“And the rock that I had holding the paper down,” my voice said. Her eye twitched, barely perceptible. “And the pencil I was using.” Her brows drew closer together. “And then it was dark, and I couldn’t draw them again, and then I had to do my chores and it was time for bed.”

Miss Underwood frowned, unwedged one hand from her hip and pointed at my chest. “You’d better be sure to get that dog to the vet, young man.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded vigorously. “We’re taking him this afternoon.”

“Good,” she said. “And re-write your report and bring it in tomorrow. Along with a report on how Roscoe did at the vet’s.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, and wondered if the pittance I had in the Mason jar under my bed could buy me a plane, train, or boat ticket anywhere else in the world.

That afternoon, when I slouched from the school bus, Roscoe careened down the driveway to meet me, his half-grown legs all knobs and paws flying indiscriminately; he seemed none the worse for wear for his “misadventure” of the day before. I trudged up the driveway, the pup orbiting around me, bounding and panting, pausing only to wolf down my mother’s lone remaining gladiola. While my reporting of late had been very light on honesty, there was truth to the fact that Roscoe was a one-canine mauling, gulping, devouring, completely-nondiscriminatory eating machine. The gladiolas, much to my mother’s dismay, had vanished into his maw during a single galumphing frenzy; this was shortly after Roscoe had discovered the infinite wonders that the frog pond in the backyard held. Mom had admonished my father to restrain the dog. Dad had testified that socialization was critical to Roscoe’s mental development and future as a police dog. Mom declared her flowers unfair casualties. Dad promised to build a fence for her gardens (a moot point, as Roscoe had already decimated them).

The sound of my mother’s footsteps on the porch drew my attention; I looked up to see Roscoe gleefully caprioling by her side. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and was staring at me with an expression that immediately made me slow my already lethargic trudge.

“I hear Roscoe ate your homework,” she said. There was no tone of accusation or belief–or even disbelief, for that matter–just a simple statement. I stopped and looked up at her, and for two ticks of a heartbeat I was on the verge of coming clean. I steeled myself to admit my lie, to face the consequences, and to be a better man for it. During those two ticks of a heartbeat, Roscoe splayed himself on the porch and latched onto one of the banister posts, gnawing and grunting.

“Yes ma’am,” I said, and felt the heat rise under my collar as I lied to my own mother. I looked intently at Roscoe (who supported my story with his every action) to avoid looking in my mother’s eyes. I heard her sigh.

“Well, alright then. I called Dr. Brown’s office as soon as Miss Underwood phoned me, so let’s get things together and get going. Hopefully, he’ll be fine; it’s that rock I’m worried about.”

I nodded and walked up the porch steps, head down and ashamed, and slipped past my mother, past the squirming, euphoric mass of German shepherd enthusiasm. My mother stayed on the porch while I dropped my book bag on the kitchen table. Roscoe leapt up, flung himself against her legs. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her reach down idly and rub his head. He gazed up at her adoringly, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, wood splinters flecking his lips; his tailed swished nonstop across the porch.

“Maybe the paper and rock and all just went right through him,” I said, and hoped that if a dog actually were to eat a paper and a rock, they might actually move right along. Otherwise, I was going to be busted when the vet checked the dog out and declared him devoid of foreign objects. Not that I wanted him to have a problem; I didn’t, but his clean bill of health was my sentence. Granted, it was of my own making.

“I hope so,” Mom’s voice came in from the porch. I heard her add, under her breath, “Roscoe, you’re going to be the death of me if you live long enough.”

In the vet’s waiting room, I studiously worked on my tadpole-to-frog report, shielding it from Roscoe, who my mother worked up a sweat restraining. And when it was finally his turn to go in and be examined, and I was left with silence and the weight of my own guilt, I could barely remember the details of amphibian metamorphosis, much less write about them. Mom, quiet, read a paperback. The clock on the wall ticked off five minutes, 10, 15; the smell of the waiting room mixed with the odor of wet dog, cat pee, and rodent cage litter, and I began to feel nauseous.

“How’s your paper coming?” Mom asked. I shrugged. I sweated.

I was nearly to the point of breaking down and admitting my guilt, or at least bolting from the waiting room and into the parking lot, when Dr. Brown summoned us. Mom clutched her purse, and I drooped behind her, a condemned man going to the gallows. The vet brought us into the execution chamber, and closed the door. The harsh florescent lights gleamed, ruthless and all-seeing. Roscoe was not in the room to witness my punishment.

Dr. Brown cleared his throat. I felt a prickling thrill of sweat, and stared fixedly at the poster of canine parasites on the wall. “Well, we took x-rays of Roscoe, and we don’t see your rock or your paper.”

I couldn’t help a fleeting glance at the vet; he met my eyes for a beat, then looked over at Mom. “But it’s a good thing you brought him in, because we did see something else.”

I blinked, confused.

“Oh?” my mother said.

Dr. Brown turned his back to us, popped a thick sheet of film against a panel, and turned on the light behind it. Ribs and spine and gray masses flickered to light. Dr. Brown glanced over his shoulder toward us. Both Mom and I leaned toward the glowing image. Dr. Brown cleared his throat again and pointed to something in the middle of the picture. I looked closer, squinted, and then with a sting of recognition, I understood the image on the screen. My mother realized at the same time, and she chuffed, glancing sidelong at me.

“This,” Dr. Brown said, tapping the image of my G.I. Joe, recently MIA, “needs to come out. And it won’t come out the easy way like that rock did,” he glanced down at me again. “It will snag other things he swallows, and you’re going to have a bad emergency situation, maybe a dead dog.”

My mother reached for the collar of her blouse, pressed her hand flat. “Oh, no. Oh, poor Roscoe!”

My skin prickled again, but I wasn’t worried about my guilt and punishment anymore. “Will he be okay?” My voice sounded tiny and tremulous. “He won’t really die, will he?”

Dr. Brown smiled then. “No, I think we got him in time. We’ll put him on the surgery schedule for the morning, and he should be right as rain in a month’s time.” He reached a hand out and ruffled my hair. I realized I was crying. “In a way, it’s a good thing he ate your homework, otherwise you might not have found out about this until it was too late.”

I looked up at him lamely.

That weekend, Dad fenced off what was left of Mom’s gardens, I patrolled the entire house and yard and commandeered all swallowable objects (and even some that didn’t seem swallowable), and my folks and I discussed the new obedience regimen for Roscoe. When he came home a few days later, belly shaved but none-the-worse for wear, I doted on him and chaperoned him vigilantly. After a short period of gorging withdrawal, Roscoe adjusted gleefully to his obedience training, and was already ahead of the learning curve when he officially entered his police-dog training.

I was too ashamed to ever admit to my parents my panic-induced homework fabrication. I like to think that the guilt and anxiety I experienced for that long afternoon was punishment enough, and sometimes, I also like to think that it was all part of the plan for Roscoe’s long and decorated life. I like to think that, but I don’t believe it much more than Miss Underwood believed me.

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The ‘dog ate my homework’ lie

25 Sep 2014 , by Miranda

Miranda muses on the white lies we tell to disguise our mental illness – from ‘the dog ate my homework’ to ‘my car wouldn’t start’ – and, once freed from them, how powerful the truth can be.

When you were a child, the dog ate your homework. When you’re an adult. the traffic is a nightmare, your alarm didn’t go off or your stupid phone lost all its contacts.

Does this sound familiar?

That’s because we all lie: white lies here and bendy truths there. We get so used to it that we become ashamed of ourselves and lie automatically when we feel that we will disappoint someone, lose face or cause annoyance. We just want to be liked and well thought of, underneath everything. So, we lie.

I lied endlessly over the years, rather than admit that I was bipolar, when some aspect of my illness had caused me to either lose my job, lose a relationship, lose a home or lose a friend. I had a completely alternate version of my life and CV ready to roll out at the drop of a hat. rather than tell my story the way I do now.

Lying about my illness has become so ingrained over 16 years that it is a habit hard to break. I turned up at the school drop-off one morning a few weeks ago and a friend looked at me and kindly remarked that I looked quite tired and asked if I was ok. Without thinking. I started to tell her that the dog had eaten my homework, so to speak, and actually managed to stop myself.

Then I told the truth.

I was actually in the middle of trying to manage a very challenging hypomanic episode that had come on quickly and was fairly acute. I explained the basics of my situation to her and one of my son’s teachers, who was standing with her. Not only were they kind, considerate and genuine in their concern, but they thanked me for giving them the insight I had – particularly the teacher who remarked how useful it was to hear this, from her point of view, as all our actions as parents impact our children.

I went home with a weight lifted off my shoulders, a feeling I had not experienced before. Although I have been publicly speaking out about my illness for a while now, this was the first time I have become unwell during that time – and the first time I nearly lost my homework to the dog, but stopped myself. I left the school blinking at myself in the light of not having lied about my current battle with hypomania. It felt great.

I was so inspired by my courageous rescue of homework from said dog’s gaping jaws, that I turned to my public Facebook page where I share and chat about mental health and inspirational ideas. I documented my struggle on this public forum, as well as with my friends on my personal timeline. I charted my episode from onset through to the peak – where speed wobble and breakdown set in – and on to treatment with the crisis team, reassessment of my medication and, eventually, to peacful conclusion, where relatively normal service resumed. The whole episode lasted about a month.

The result of doing this surprised me on a number of levels, and doubled my passion in doing what I do as a public speaker and advocate of speaking out. Here is what happened:

I felt supported because people followed my posts and made comments of support. I didn’t have to lie because I was telling everyone the truth and I didn’t feel ashamed. I received messages from a few people saying they were directly inspired by these posts to tell the truth about why they had been off work or behind with something. All of them either struggle with a degree of depression or take meds for a mental health condition.

Truth has power

I worked with the crisis team, and my friends and colleagues stood by while I did my best to keep everyone fully in the loop. My husband felt hugely supported by the fact that people knew; he felt less isolated in his mammoth task and responsibility as carer. Other parents asked after me and he didn’t have to lie. He felt able to ask for compassionate leave from work to lighten the load at home. And here I am – peacefully emerging from the other side of a hectic few weeks. Hypomanic episodes have always preceded a manic episode and then hospitalisation for me, or I crash-land badly, suffer a major disruption of some kind in my life and struggle, choking, back to normality through a fog of lies about what happened.

My conclusion is that I don’t need to be ashamed of my shortcomings, embarrassed about my inconsistencies or fearful of others’ perceptions of me. Truth has subtle power that can cause unexpected change. It did for me.

The ‘happily ever after’ bit of this story is simply that the poor dog was innocent the whole time.

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the dog ate my homework

English [ edit ]

Phrase [ edit ].

• 2011 May 6, Damian Carrington, “Environment action delays blamed on 'dog ate my homework' excuses”, in The Guardian ‎ [1] , archived from the original on 2022-08-24 : Their reasons for missed deadlines are mostly of the " dog ate my homework variety" including such easily foreseeable events as yesterday's elections and that the badger culling policy is "difficult and sensitive".
• 2014 September 12, Oscar Webb, quoting Donald Campbell, “UK Government Changes Its Line On Diego Garcia Flight Logs Sought in Rendition Row - Again”, in VICE ‎ [2] , archived from the original on 2022-12-05 : The government's excuses for Diego Garcia's missing records are getting increasingly confused and desperate. Ministers could hardly be less credible if they simply said ' the dog ate my homework .'
• 2017 February 18, Mia Berman, “Go West-minster, Young Mastiff”, in HuffPost ‎ [3] , archived from the original on 2019-04-09 : Our immune system's weak; we've been sick as a dog, missing work and school, resorting to " the dog ate my homework " excuses amidst these frigid dog days of winter.

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ADogAteMyHomework

A Dog Ate My Homework

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"I am telling you! A big, mean, homework eating dog attacked me and ate my report!" — Numbuh 5 , Codename: Kids Next Door

Basically, this is any child character explaining to their teacher why they haven't done his homework. This will be either a lie, which may or may not be believed, or a Cassandra Truth . If it is the latter, expect them to also bring in the evidence proving their case (such as moist bits from homework, or even the animal itself). The most common variant involves a dog, but other animals can be used as well.

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• Noggin's promo for Sponk! where Bob tries to tell his teacher Mrs. Kralley this.
• In Futakoi , Nozomu is always wary whenever the goat is around when he's doing his homework. No one believes Nozomu because the little bastard is nice to everyone except him.
• Inverted in Kokuhaku Game , where the dog attempts to do the homework.
• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf : Joys of Seasons episode 36, Sparky and Weslie both have their homework stolen by Wolffy, and Paddi, who was too lazy to actually do the work, comes up with the excuse that Wolffy also stole his homework. Mr. Slowy notices they're all using the same excuse and doesn't believe them , instead threatening to punish them all if they don't hand in their homework.
• Cards Against Humanity features a question with this phrase and an empty spot in which to substitute something else for "dog". Naturally, given the nature of the game, this is very likely to enter the realm of Refuge in Audacity .
• Archie Comics : One Jughead comic's cover gag involves Jughead not submitting any homework because he ate it. Miss Grundy is in complete disbelief over his excuse. Grundy : Let me get this straight: You ate your own homework ? Jughead : I can't help it! All those word problems were about food!
• The Shea Fontana DC Super Hero Girls tie-in graphic novel Summer Olympus ends with Beast Boy using this excuse after seeing he can't top Wonder Woman's essay on what was done during summer vacation, with the twist that his dog is actually himself in dog form and he eats his own homework.
• Goof Troop : A Disney Adventures comic has PJ offering this excuse for his homework — although he has the sense to bring Chainsaw, still attached to said homework, with him.
• Viz has Playtime Fontayne use this excuse to explain his failure to deliver a bunch of monthly reports to head office.
• One strip has Nate eat bacon while at the bus stop because he missed breakfast. The bacon grease gets on his homework, local dog Spitsy smells it, and you can guess what happened from there. Nate: Wacky thing happened at the bus stop this morning... Mrs. Godfrey: I smell bacon.
• In a strip after that, Nate puts his homework in his backpack to keep it from happening again. When Spitsy gets near, he throws the bag away from the dog and shoos him away...only for the bag to land in a garbage can, then tossed into a garbage truck and crushed.
• A third strip in the arc has Nate make Francis film his homework, since Nate is aware at this point something will happen to it. Sure enough, it accidentally falls into the sewer, but Francis still has the tape... which is then snatched and destroyed by a rogue chimpanzee .
• Citizen Dog : Fergus the dig actually does eat Maggie’s homework. He has to accompany her to school to back up the story and prove she isn’t lying.
• One Close to Home strip has a student claiming his dog ate his term paper. The dog is attached to his arm.
• The Far Side : One cartoon has a class full of dogs with the teacher asking, "Well, here we go again... did anyone here not eat his or her homework on the way to school?"
• Subverted when Elizabeth tries to get Farley to eat her homework. He refuses to touch it.
• Later, Michael successfully gets Farley to eat his homework, but he has to pour bacon grease on it first.
• FoxTrot : Jason's iguana Quincy has eaten his and his siblings' homework, causing them to either force Jason to fix up their homework or tell Jason off for feeding the iguana the wrong homework assignment. In one strip, Peter collects the bits of homework left by Quincy to take to his teacher to prove it actually happened.
• Grand Avenue : In the October 6, 2014 strip, Michael has to tell his teacher that "My grandma ate my homework." For once, it's a logical explanation: his homework was an experiment involving rock candy.
• A dog sits in a classroom full of human kids saying: "I couldn't eat the homework because the kid who usually sits here did not do it."
• A dog teacher asks her dog students: "Did anyone's dad not eat their homework?"
• A kid brought an X-Ray machine to class to show the homework inside the dog.
• Luann : In one series of strips, Luann is babysitting while writing a report that is due the next day. Unfortunately, the baby gets a hold of the report, rips it up, and feeds it to Luann's dog. When Luann tries to explain what happened to her teacher the next day, he just laughs his head off at Luann thinking she's trying the "a dog ate my homework" excuse.
• Madam & Eve : This is Thandi's go-to excuse for not doing her homework.
• This happened a couple of times in Nancy (at least in the Guy Gilchrist-run). It usually involved Nancy bringing her dog, Poochie, to school with her to present it to her teacher as "proof" of what happened.
• One arc has Snoopy playing World War I Flying Ace and pretend that Sally's book report is sensitive papers. She chases him and he swallows the report to keep it from falling in "enemy hands". So she takes him to school the next day and takes him up in front of the class. Sally: I might have a little trouble reading it. *shakes Snoopy* I SAID...I might have a little trouble reading it!
• A 1995 strip has Rerun planning on using this excuse the first time he's assigned homework in grade school. Lucy points out that they don't have a dog, so he says he'll borrow one. Snoopy concedes that he might do it if he writes on something actually edible. Rerun: We don't have homework in kindergarten. Lucy: I know. You're lucky. Rerun: When we do, I'll tell the teacher my dog ate my homework. Lucy: You don't have a dog. Rerun: I'll borrow a dog. Snoopy: Write your homework on a doughnut, and I'll eat it.
• Inverted in another comic where, instead of eating Charlie Brown's homework, Snoopy actually writes it.
• Private Eye : One cartoon shows a boy with a tangle of shredded paper, explaining to the teacher that his mum spiralised his homework.
• Inverted in a cartoon published in a book of puzzles: a dog is ripping through a pile of papers, and a woman is screaming: "You stupid mutt! How am I supposed to tell my students that my dog ate their homework?"
• Red and Rover : Sometimes Red will coax Rover into eating his homework when he's afraid he'll do badly. One case ended with Red cleaning up the mess after Rover couldn't keep down all the edible bribes.
• ITS MY LIFE! : "Hey Scot yuo must do are homework an yurs but well eat yurs so you get a bad grad LOL!" My [mad dog] bros sayd an started to pump at me.
• Kill la Kill AU : The 17th comic mentions that the two-year old Mako ate Nui's homework because the latter spilled food on it.
• The MLP Loops : Loop 201.14 has an unAwake Apple Bloom tearfully and truthfully inform her teacher that (an also unAwake) "Discord ate my homework, Miss Cheerilee." Cheerilee (with Fluttershy supervising) makes him redo the homework for her, and then some, as punishment.
• Oh God, Not Again! : Someone from Harry's year had to turn in their homework in tattered ruins, after the book Hagrid assigned for his class tried to eat it.
• Things I Am Not Allowed to Do at the PPC : Rule 304 prohibits teaching pets to eat assignments, under threat of death or being sent on a mission to a truly nasty badfic.

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• Spider's Web: A Pig's Tale : In an inverted example, to keep his mother from finding out he didn't do his homework, Walt makes up a lie that his homework was busy eating a dog.
• 102 Dalmatians has an example not related to school. Probation Officer Chloe Simon wants one of her charges, Ewan, to show a pay stub and he says he can't because a dog ate it. Chloe, of course, doesn't believe him and asks if he couldn't come with a better story. He tells one about being abducted by aliens at Picadilly Circus. Ewan eventually shows a photograph of him and his boss at the dog shelter he works at and a drool-covered IOU note he received instead of the pay stub because the shelter is low on funds.
• What did the student say to his math teacher after his dog ate part of his homework? "I got 99 problems, but a bitch ate one."
• "Bob, where's your homework?" the teacher asked. "My dog ate it," Bob replied. "Do you really expect me to believe that?" the teacher said. "It's true," Bob responded. "I did have to cut it up and mix it into the dog food. But it was eaten."
• What did the dog say to his classmate? "Can you help me with my homework? I ate mine."
• The Cat Ate My Gymsuit : Marcy uses the title statement as one of her excuses for not participating in PE class.
• Thief of Time mentions that no dog dares to eat homework given to Susan's students. Instead, they sniff it out and carefully bring it to her class if the kid forgot. She's like that.
• It's mentioned that at Unseen University, your homework can eat your dog.
• Family Skeleton Mysteries : Discussed and subverted in the third book, Georgia needs an excuse to get in touch with a former co-worker (in order to get information on the murder victim), and decides to open the conversation by asking him for copies of the lesson plans they'd worked out together. She says that "I couldn't claim that Byron note  Her daughter Madison's dog. had eaten my homework, but nobody argued with a hard disk crash."
• Rod Allbright Alien Adventures : Book 1 is titled Aliens Ate My Homework (and they really did, too - one of them got hungry, and didn't realize the piece of paper he was snacking on was a math assignment due that day). It doesn't end well, but the aliens appreciate how the apparent Refuge in Audacity helped cover for the other weird things that were happening.
• Roys Bedoys : In “Stop Blaming People, Roys Bedoys!”, when Roys starts blaming others for why he didn’t do his homework, Truly jokingly asks if his dog (Charlie) ate it. Roys says, “Maybe he did”.
• Schooled in Magic : At Wizarding School , it's more common for the excuse to be "my homework ate my dog." It's still a cliche.
• The Trouble With Demons : A student tells his teacher that a Krog (a lesser demon that eats paper and ink) ate his homework. After a thorough quizzing from the teacher (who is the head of the demonology department) on the alleged Krog, the excuse is accepted.
• Batwoman (2019) : Lampshaded. Kate Kane in her Batwoman disguise finds herself making out with her ex-girlfriend Crow Security officer Sophie Moore, which is a bad idea for a whole lot of reasons . She goes to break up with her only for them to end up smooching again before events are interrupted by Sophie's homophobic mother paying a visit . The next day Kate gives an unconvincing explanation as to why things didn't go according to plan. Luke Fox says sarcastically, "So, dog ate my breakup?"
• Even Stevens : Ren Stevens, when having to be paired up with a Pig, ended up having her homework eaten by the pig. She tries to explain this to her teacher, with predictable results.
• Full House : In one episode, the Tanners' newly-acquired puppy Comet eats DJ's book report, but DJ is smart enough to know it won't fly even if it is the truth so she decides to tell her teacher Michelle ate it.
• One installment of It's Me or the Dog focuses on a family with kids and a Pomeranian-chihuahua mix with severe resource-guarding issues and a particular fondness for making off with paper. The narrator quips that these may be the only kids in the world who can literally say that the dog ate their homework.
• Married... with Children invoked this trope in an episode where Peggy goes Back to School because she didn't pass home economics ( no surprises there ). At a scene, a teacher asks the class to wake Kelly, who quickly responds that her dog ate her homework. Later on, when Peggy is introduced to class, both she and Kelly fall asleep and the teacher asks the class to wake them both, who respond that the dog ate their homework. Later, Al literally eats Peg's homework (a roast rack of lamb).
• M*A*S*H : A variant in a season 10 episode— Hawkeye gets in serious trouble because a goat ate the entire payroll (and, naturally, no one believes him; he is charged with stealing it). Later, Hawkeye is finally proved innocent when the goat subsequently eats a general's report on the issue.
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide : One episode has Ned giving tips on good excuses. He comments that saying a dog ate your homework is a bad excuse... right before a dog eats his homework. The rest of the episode has him trying to find the dog and convince his teacher Mr. Sweeney that he wasn't lying.
• Person of Interest : Inverted in a fourth-season episode where Bear eats Finch's students' papers before Finch can grade them.
• So Random! : The debut sketch of the apparent Bad Liar Rufus has him insist his dog ate his homework, then clarifies that a monkey took his homework and fed it to his dog. This turns out to be true, weirdly.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine : In " The Nagus ", Nog tries to explain why he hasn't done his homework. The only excuse he comes up with is that "Vulcans stole his homework".
• Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad : In "A Virus Ate My Homework", unlike what the title might suggest, Sam's homework isn't eaten. His little sister paints it over. Fortunately, the emergency caused by the virus makes the students go home earlier, allowing Sam another day to redo the homework.
• Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills : In one episode, one of the heroes was doing her homework when they've been called into battle. She then took the homework with her, eventually leading to the homework being eaten by the monster. The teacher later sarcastically asked if a dog ate her homework. She answered it was a monster and the teacher took it for sarcasm.
• Wizards of Waverly Place : Briefly mentioned in an episode when the Russos adopt a dragon that's been transformed into a beagle. At one point, the dragon dog sets Alex's homework on fire, to which she comments: "The dog burned my homework, that's a new one."
• The Wonder Years : In one episode, Kevin has to do a school assignment involving a potato. His new dog eats it, and the teacher reacts in disbelief that his dog ate his homework.

    Music  --> Mötley Crüe : This happens to the kid at the beginning of the video for "Smokin' in the Boys' Room".--> -->

• The Unbelievable Truth : Invoked in Holly Walsh's lecture on dogs, where she claims George R.R. Martin's dog ate the manuscript for The Winds of Winter , possibly as a preemptive measure after having seen season 7 of Game of Thrones .
• Another Case Solved : The "Comic Calamities" case involves retrieving a rare comic book which, when the player character finds it, is missing a few pages. When you confront the artist about this, he babbles "My hamster ate them! Really!"
• Math Rescue : A couple of word problems feature this. One plays this straight with the logical consequence of the student having to redo their homework. The other turns it on its head by having the teacher's dog eat homework that said teacher was grading.
• Medieval Cop : This is the talking dog Phil's favorite excuse for missing notes or evidence.
• Persona 4 : The main character can eat his little cousin's science project.
• Rivals of Aether : In Lovers of Aether , Absa has a problem with her homework actually being eaten. By her .
• Forestdale : In a gambit to be excused from gym class, Izabell claims that her Dalmatian friend Dallas ate her gym clothes with a fake letter from her mom as proof. Needless to say, it doesn't work and Dallas calls her out on such blatant stereotyping.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal , "Homework": "The dog ate my homework" gets a different meaning when the homework was to make a chocolate sculpture.
• A semi-reoccurring gag in early Monster High webisodes was Clawdeen, a werewolf, blaming her brother for eating her homework.
• Mentioned in episode 15 of RWBY Chibi when Ruby goes to get Zwei, she tells him "C'mon, let's go eat Weiss' homework!"
• Connected to the above, Jane notes that one of the obscure dates covered by the Calendar Man in Batman: Arkham City is Saint Roch's Day.
• The Amazing World of Gumball : Darwin and Gumball said their dad ate their homework. Naturally, no one believes them, and naturally they were right ("I thought it would make me smart! ")
• American Dragon: Jake Long : In "Fu and Tell", when Haley brings Fu Dog in to her class's show and tell, one boy asks Fu to eat his homework. Fu obliges, commenting, "Tastes like a D minus."
• Angela Anaconda : One episode has Angela's dog actually eat her homework (her mom accidentally spilled bacon grease on it while her dad was looking it over), but of course no one believes her.
• Animaniacs : This is a joke waiting to happen when the Warners attend school. Even when it was their first day. Turned out the dog was Wakko . Teacher: Bad dog! Gimme that! Wakko: Grrrr...
• Arthur : In one episode, the Brain deliberately flouts several superstitions to show there is nothing in them, then has a terrible streak of bad luck, including having a dog eat his homework, which causes him extra distress because he knows how the report will be received.
• Bad Dog : In "Bad Dog Ate My Homework", Penelope spent most of the episode trying to keep Berkeley from eating a hybrid plant that she grew for school.
• Beverly Hills Teens : In "The Dog Ate My Homework", the dog belongs to Bianca , and is sent by her deliberately in order to make Larke stay at home instead of competing against her. Also subverted, since for awhile, Larke's own cat is blamed, the homework was on a floppy, and there was no attempt to use the excuse.
• Catdog : One episode titled directly after the trope is devoted to the citizens of Nearburg making Dog eat their homework, which Cat exploits for their money. However, when the big one comes where Dog must eat the President's written speech before he has to give it, he becomes sick from his growing crisis of conscious, and Cat is forced to eat it himself. This turns out to be a bad decision as the entire crowd finds the idea of a cat eating homework ludicrous and boo the President off the stage (and back into the clowning business).
• ChalkZone : The villain Skrawl forces Penny into siding with him by threatening to have her homework eaten by a dog in "Chalk Queen".
• Codename: Kids Next Door : Numbuh Five has a genuine problem of her homework getting eaten every day by a dog she passes by on the way to school. She has enough and decides to take the problem head on. Turns out that it's a rival classmate who can morph into a weredog and eats Five's homework out of spite, and the teacher is in on it, too . And, even then, it's only because Numbuh Five has been helping Numbuh Four with his homework (since he usually does poorly in school.) This turns out to be useful for the KND because it turns out that poorly-done homework actually makes weredogs sick.
• Danger Mouse : In DangerMouse on the Orient Express , Penfold loses a valuable document to a hungry fish in a Venice canal. When he's captured by Greenback's agents he readily tells them that a fish ate the document. Nobody believes him.
• Dennis the Menace (UK) : In "The Show Mustn't Go On", Dennis claims that he had to feed his homework to a giant paper-eating alien bug to prevent it from destroying Beanotown.
• Doug : When the kids are performing in the school talent show, Skeeter plans to play an ocarina he made out of one of the school cafeteria's dinner rolls. He's forced to withdraw from talent show when Roger's cat, Stinky, accidentally eats it. Mr. Dink doesn't believe him. Mr. Dink : Not the old "cat ate my ocarina" excuse. At least be original.
• The Emperor's New School has a variant where Yzma plans on forcing Kuzco to give this excuse, and even lampshades on and exploits its Dead Horse status: Kronk : Come on, "A llama ate my homework"? It's the oldest excuse in the book. Yzma : Exactly! It's so old, no one will believe him.
• Referenced and narrowly subverted in the George Shrinks episode "Journey to the Centre of the Garden." George and Becky are recording the growth cycle of mung beans, but find their work impeded by birds pecking around. George manages to shoo one off, following it up with a quip: George : Who's gonna believe a bird ate our homework?
• Histeria! had a sketch detailing John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men manuscript getting torn up (see Real Life folder), with kids everywhere congratulating him on inventing such a brilliant excuse.
• Jorel's Brother : In "Zazazila", the Extreme Omnivore dog Zazá eats Jorel's brother's essay about how he would change the world; his dad Edson even points out how the "lamest excuse ever" actually came true. Jorel's brother decides to make another identical essay... and puts a size-increasing pill inside it so he can enter the dog and get the essay back. While he does get it back eventually, Zazá had been a giant for long enough that she messed up the entire structure of the continents, a change that is kept permanent in the series.
• KaBlam! anthologized the Jetcat episode "Project: Evil" where Tod may have tell his teacher that the hyenas that threaten eat him ate his notebook.
• Kick Buttowski tells his teacher that a dog ate his homework, and it's the truth. A vicious little dog did (and is shown in Flashback ) eat his homework.
• Martha Speaks : In a between-episode segment, T.D. brings Martha the dog to school and asks her to say that she ate his homework. There's also a song sung by Helen saying that Martha ate her music homework, which she actually does in the episode "Martha Sings".
• ¡Mucha Lucha! : Before Rikochet can present his Day of the Dead diorama to class, his pet Masked Dog ate it. The fact that there was Pan de Muerto on it may have caused it.
• Pet Alien : "When TV Ruled the World" has Tommy get an F after Gumpers ate his homework. Apparently, the teacher didn't take "aliens ate my homework" as a valid excuse.
• Puff the Magic Dragon : In Puff in the Land of Living Lies , Sandy lies to her teacher that a dragon stole her homework and ate it with ketchup and mustard. At the beginning of the special, Puff acts out this lie, before explaining that it was a lie.
• Recess : TJ tries to have his teacher believe this showing his homework shredded and drooled (which was done by him and never started the assignment). She didn't believe it since he still had a scrap of paper on his lip. In the same episode, Spinelli uses the typical "dog ate it" response, and Vince claims his brother ate it . Vince: My brother ate it! Miss Grotke: Eaten by a family member? That's a new one .
• The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs had Sheela's dog eating her homework... on purpose. Because she has accidentally created a formula that seizes the king-side doggie food packs, Von Rubie tries to rewrite the homework from scratch, but when his mistress arrives... Needless to say, the trope happens, as well as Rubie escaping through the window.
• In " Bart the Murderer ", the dog really did eat Bart's homework just before he left for school. "You ate my homework? ... I didn't know dogs really did that."
• When the family dog, Santa's Little Helper, starts working for the police, Bart has no choice but to eat his own homework.
• In an episode where Bart's teacher starts dating Ned Flanders and saw Santa's Little Helper, she asked Bart if that's the dog that eats his homework. Trying to convince her by giving the dog a homework for him to eat. The dog refuses. Bart then covers the homework with dog food. The dog ate the food, cleaned the paper, and signaled the answer of a math question.
• When Bart is nominated for class president and asked to give a speech, he says the dog ate his speech.
• SpongeBob SquarePants : Some children's homework fell victim to the Alaskan Bullworm on the corresponding episode .
• Tales from the Cryptkeeper : There's a boy who, instead of using a dog, uses a monster as an excuse. He tells a homework-eating monster another monster showed up before. After a trip to monster land, the boy confesses and the monster takes him home and makes him do two homeworks: one to be eaten and another one to be taken to school.
• Uncle Grandpa : "Uncle Grandpa Ate My Homework" begins with the title character eating a boy's diorama of Ancient Egypt, which he needed to pass the class. Naturally, Uncle Grandpa tries to help, and naturally things go horribly wrong.
• What A Cartoon! Show : One short has a cowboy telling his teacher his dog ate his homework. Obviously, she doesn't believe him, but he tries to prove it by pulling out a dog chewing on a piece of loose-leaf paper. The teacher responds by lecturing him on bringing pets to class.
• Many dogs like to chew on things and some find that textbooks and other homework actually are worth eating.
• This trope has been slowly replaced with "My printer broke" or "My email stopped working" in high schools. For adults, it's something like, "my social media was hacked", when they post something controversial.
• A T-shirt available on Threadless features an X-ray of a dog. Inside the dog is a math book, a protractor, a pencil, and so on.
• If you take a culinary class, this is a very real possibility. And it might not just be the dog. You might have to say, "My roommate ate my homework."
• While filming Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , Steven Spielberg literally had to fill out an insurance claim for one of the costumes with the words " dress eaten by elephant ". It can almost be seen in the movie, during the campfire at night scene - the elephant's head is just out of frame as it's eating the dress in front of the entire crew, who are somehow not bursting into laughter.
• "My dog ate my homework" is gradually giving way to "My bird ate my homework." Nobody is quite sure why birds such as cockatiels are so compelled to nibble on loose papers.
• John Steinbeck had to rewrite half of Of Mice and Men after his dog Toby partially destroyed the first manuscript.

Alternative Title(s): The Dog Ate My Homework

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Basically, this is any child character explaining to his teacher why he hasn't done his homework. This will be either a lie, which may or may not be believed, or a Cassandra Truth . If it is the latter, expect them to also bring in the evidence proving their case (such as moist bits from homework, or even the animal itself.) The most common variant involves a dog, but other animals can be used as well.

Though this has become a Dead Horse Trope , and children rarely use this excuse seriously, the second variation on this trope is in fact Truth in Television . Many dogs do have a thing for paper, or are just Extreme Omnivores .

Anime and Manga

• In Futakoi , Nozomu is always wary whenever the goat is around when he's doing his homework. No one believes Nozomu because the little bastard is nice to everyone except him.

Comic Books

• A Disney Adventures Goof Troop comic had PJ offering this excuse for his homework. Though he had the sense to bring Chainsaw, still attached to said homework, with him.
• "Hey Scot yuo must do are homeork an yurs but well eat yurs so you get a bad grad LOL!" My [mad dog] bros sayd an started to pump at me.
• Someone from Harry's year in Oh God Not Again had to turn in their homework in tattered ruins, after the book Hagrid asigned for his class tried to eat it.
• Aliens Ate My Homework (they really did, too). It doesn't end well, but the aliens appreciate how the apparent Refuge in Audacity helped cover for the other weird things that were happening.
• Mentioned in Thief of Time , in that no dog dares to eat homework given to Susan's students. Instead, they sniff it out and carefully bring the kid pencils so that they can do their himework. She is like that.
• In another Discworld book it's mentioned that at Unseen University, your homework could eat the dog.
• A Peanuts picture book has a literal version. Snoopy was playing WW 1 Flying Ace and pretended Sally's book report was sensitive papers. She chased him and he swallowed the report. So she takes him to school the next day and takes him up in front of the class.

Live-Action TV

• In one season 10 episode of M*A*S*H , Hawkeye gets in serious trouble because a goat ate the entire payroll (and, naturally, no one believes him; he is charged with stealing it). Later, Hawkeye is finally proven innocent when the goat subsequently eats a general's report on the issue. Seems sort of the same thing in spirit.
• Briefly mentioned in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place when the Russos adopt a dragon that's been transformed into a beagle. At one point, the dragon dog sets Alex's homework on fire, to which she comments: "The dog burned my homework, that's a new one."
• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Nagus", Nog tries to explain why he hasn't done his homework. The only excuse he comes up with is that "Vulcans stole his homework".
• Ren Stevens in Even Stevens , when having to be paired up with a Pig, ended up having her homework eaten by the pig. She tries to explain this to her teacher, with predictable results.
• An episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide involved Ned giving tips on good excuses. He comments that saying a dog ate your homework is a bad excuse... right before a dog eats his homework. The rest of the episode has him trying to find the dog and convince his teacher Mr. Sweeney that he wasn't lying.
• Married... with Children invoked this trope in an episode where Peggy goes Back to School because she didn't pass home economics (no surprises there). At a scene, a teacher asks the class to wake Kelly, who quickly responded that her dog at her homework. Later on, when Peggy is introduced to class, both her and Kelly fall asleep and the teacher asks the class to wake them both, who responded that the dog ate their homework.
• In one episode of Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills , one of the heroes was doing her homework when they've been called into battle. She then took the homework with her, eventually leading to the homework being eaten by the monster. The teacher later sarcastically asked if a dog ate her homework. She answered it was a monster and the teacher took it for sarcasm.
• Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad had an episode titled "A Virus Ate My Homework". Unlike what the title might have made fans expect, Sam's homework wasn't eaten. His little sister painted it over. Fortunately, the emergency caused by the virus made the students go home earlier, allowing Sam another day to redo the homework.
• Invoked in the lyrics to the theme song for Saved by the Bell .

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes provides the page image.
• The Far Side : One cartoon has a class full of dogs with the teacher asking, "Well, here we go again... Did anyone here not eat his or her homework on the way to school?"
• On FoxTrot , Jason's iguana has eaten his homework. In some cases, Jason's iguana also ate his siblings homework, causing them to either force Jason to fix up their homework (and it is also implied in the final panel that they were actually feeding the iguana their homework), or tell Jason off for feeding the iguana the wrong homework assignment.
• A 1995 Peanuts strip has this variation:
• In Dilbert , a kid tries to invoke this with Dogbert. It ends badly.
• In this strip Garfield passes by a dog, who holds a sign saying: "Will eat homework for food".
• In another strip , Jon goes to a class reunion, and meets his old English teacher, Mrs. Fronzak:
• Garfield also finds out that this is actually a very lucrative business for dogs.
• In one strip, one of the other girls in class, on being asked about her homework, admits that she ate it herself. Specifically, Larisa put it through a blender and force-fed her the resulting mash. Nobody believes it, of course, but Sandra notices an electrical plug poking out of Larisa's backpack ... and considering Larisa's nature, you really can't put it past her.
• Larisa also once tries the excuse that her father ate her homework.
• Florence of Freefall was asked in one strip if her owner ever wanted her to eat his homework. She replies "Of course not, it was all done on the computer. He taught me to delete it instead."
• Drusus Beausoleil mentioned the old "my homework ate my dog" excuse.
• In one Kevin and Kell strip, Rudy claims " I accidentally ate my own homework ".
• Science and Ink has " Genetic Engineering homework ", of course.

Web Original

• Actively invoked in a season one episode of RWBY Chibi , when Ruby walks off with Zwei saying, "C'mon, Zwei, let's go eat Weiss's homework."

Western Animation

• An episode of Angela Anaconda had Angela's dog actually eat her homework, but of course no one believed her.
• Kick Buttowski : Kick tells his teacher, "A dog ate my homework," and it's the truth. A vicious little dog did (and is shown in Flash Back ) eat his homework.
• In one episode the dog really did eat Bart's homework just before he left for school. Naturally, his teacher didn't believe him.
• When the family dog, Santa's Little Helper, starts working for the police, Bart has no choice but to eat his own homework.
• In an episode where Bart's teacher starts dating Ned Flanders and saw Santa's Little Helper, she asked Bart if that's the dog that eats his homework. Trying to convince her by giving the dog a homework for him to eat. The dog refuses. Bart then covers the homework with dog food. The dog ate the food, cleaned the paper and signaled the answer of a math question.
• In Codename: Kids Next Door , Numbuh Five has a genuine problem of her homework getting eaten every day by a dog she passes by on the way to school. She has enough and decides to take the problem head on. Turns out that it's a rival classmate who can morph into a weredog and eats Five's homework out of spite, and the teacher is in on it, too . And, even then, it's only because Numbah Five has been helping Numbah Four with his homework (since he usually does poorly in school. This turns out to be useful for the KND because It turns out that poorly-done homework actually makes weredogs sick.
• The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs had Sheela's dog eating her homework... on purpose. Because she has accidentally created a formula that seizes the king-side doggie food packs , Von Rubie tries to rewrite the homework from scratch, but when his mistress arrives... Needless to say, the trope happens, as well as Rubie escaping through the window.
• One short in What a Cartoon Show has a cowboy telling his teacher his dog ate his homework. Obviously she doesn't believe him, but he tries to prove it by pulling out a dog chewing on a piece of loose-leaf paper. The teacher responds by lecturing him on bringing pets to class.
• The Emperor's New School has a variant where Yzma plans on forcing Kuzco to give this excuse.
• An episode of CatDog was entirely devoted to the citizens of Nearburg making Dog eat their homework, which Cat exploits for their money. However, when the big one comes where Dog must eat the Mayor's written speech before he speaks up front, he becomes sick from eating too much homework, and Cat is forced to eat it himself. This turns out to be a bad decision as the entire crowd finds the idea of a cat eating homework ludicrous and boo the Mayor off the stage (and into the clowning business).
• In one episode of Arthur , the Brain deliberately flouts several superstitions to show there is nothing in them, then has a terrible streak of bad luck, including having a dog eat his homework, which causes him extra distress because he knows how the report will be received.
• In Animaniacs , this is a joke waiting to happen when the Warners attend school. Even when it was their first day. Turned out the dog was Wakko .
• In Recess , TJ managed to have his teacher believe this showing his homework shredded and drooled (which was done by him and never started the assignment). She didn't believe it since he still had a scrap of paper on his lip.
• In The Amazing World of Gumball , Darwin and Gumball said their dad ate their homework. Naturally, no one believes them, and naturally they were right ("I thought it would make me smart! ")
• In Tales from the Cryptkeeper , there was a boy who, instead of using a dog, used a monster as an excuse. He told a homework-eating monster another monster showed up before. After a trip to monster land, the boy confessed and the monster took him home and made him do two homeworks: one to be eaten and another one to be taken to school.

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Wonder of the Day #491

Do Dogs Really Eat Homework?

SCIENCE — Life Science

Have You Ever Wondered...

• Do dogs really eat homework?
• Why do dogs eat paper?
• What foods can be dangerous to dogs?
• chocolate ,
• guacamole ,
• Assignment ,
• Curiosity ,
• Veterinarian ,
• Table Scraps ,
• Theobromine ,
• Kidney Failure ,
• Macadamia Nuts ,

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Thomas. Thomas Wonders , “ Why do dogs eat homework? ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Thomas!

You have a big, important homework assignment due tomorrow, but you're not stressed . You made good use of your study time at school and completed over half of it. When you got home, you avoided distractions, like television and video games, and worked hard until it was finished.

Then your worst nightmare happened! While you were in the kitchen making a healthy snack , your dog got hungry, too. Instead of eating his dog food, though, he made a sandwich out of your homework! Oh no! What will you do?

You know that “my dog ate my homework" is the oldest excuse in the book. Your teacher will never buy that! Or will she?

As it turns out, dogs really do eat paper from time to time. If you explain this to your teacher — and show her what scraps remain, if any — you just might get an extension to re-do that assignment. Better yet, make use of modern technology and do your homework on the computer, so you can save it and print out a copy whenever you need it!

Remember: honesty is the best policy . If you simply forget to do your homework, don't lie and blame it on your dog!

Dogs are known to be indiscriminate eaters with healthy appetites. This means that some dogs will eat just about anything if given the chance.

Why? Some scientists believe eating paper and other non-food items may just result from boredom . Most dogs are energetic animals that need plenty of exercise and distractions to keep from becoming bored.

When bored, many dogs will give in to their natural curiosity and explore new things. This exploration can often take the form of scratching, biting, and eating. If you were eating a sandwich while you were doing your homework, stray crumbs or bits of food might even make your homework tempting to a dog that's bored!

To dogs, paper is just another “thing." It's something to chew on. If it happens to be your homework, that's particularly bad for you. However, it's probably no different to your dog than chewing on newspaper or a book. To prevent your homework from becoming lunch, be sure to store it in a safe place when you're finished with it!

It might also help to make sure your dog is well-fed. Stick to food and treats recommended by your veterinarian , though. It can be dangerous to feed your dog human food in the form of table scraps.

Over the years, veterinarians have learned that there are certain foods that can harm dogs. Here are some foods that can be particularly dangerous to dogs:

• Avocado : Skip the guacamole ! Avocados contain persin, which can be toxic to dogs in large amounts.
• Caffeine : In large quantities, caffeine can be fatal for dogs. So stick to water and skip the coffee, tea, and sodas for your dog. Also avoid chocolate , which contains caffeine and another substance toxic to dogs: theobromine.
• Onions and Garlic : Dogs who eat onions or garlic regularly or in large quantities can develop a condition called anemia, which results from the destruction of red blood cells.
• Grapes and Raisins : Veterinarians don't really know why, but it's clear that grapes and raisins can cause kidney failure in dogs.
• Macadamia Nuts : As few as six macadamia nuts can make a dog ill. Larger doses can be fatal.

Wonder What's Next?

Are unicorns real? Do they live in the sea? Find out tomorrow in Wonderopolis!

Are you ready for some homework? Grab a friend or family member and try out the following activities:

• Do you or a friend or family member have a dog? What kind of trouble do dogs tend to get into? Has one ever eaten homework? What about chewing up toys? Talk about the funny stories you've heard of dogs getting into trouble. Do you think any of these stories might have been caused by dogs feeling bored?
• Have you ever forgotten to do your homework? If you do, you probably don't want to blame your forgetfulness on your dog. It's best to fess up to your forgetfulness and ask for extra time to complete your homework…and maybe an extra credit assignment to make up for it being late. Inevitably, though, some students will choose to get creative and invent wild excuses as to why they weren't able to complete their homework. What do you think? If you were a teacher, would you believe any of the following excuses? I don't have my homework, because: + My babysitter flushed it down the toilet! + My locker is jammed and my homework is trapped inside! + My dad used it to start a fire in our wood stove! + I left it at home! I thought that's where HOMEwork was supposed to stay! + My friend fell in a lake! I jumped in to rescue him, and my homework drowned!
• If you don't want your dog to eat your homework, it's best to keep Fido well-fed. What do dogs usually eat, though? Do some research to learn more about dog food. Find a bag of dry dog food and read the list of ingredients. Which ingredients do you recognize? What are the others? Search the Internet to discover what some of those oddly-named ingredients actually are. If you have a dog, put what you learned into practice by making your pooch a special treat of homemade dog food !

Wonder Sources

• http://jackinabox.hubpages.com/hub/Why-do-dogs-eat-paper
• http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/ss/slideshow-foods-your-dog-should-never-eat
• http://madtbone.tripod.com/school.htm

Did you get it?

Wonder contributors.

We’d like to thank:

Dalya and Jayden for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!

Keep WONDERing with us!

Wonder Words

• distraction
• indiscriminate
• veterinarian

Yikes! We hope you've come up with a solution to prevent that from happening! 

my dog tore up my homework folder in first grade and ate my homework we posted a pic online (dog shaming)

omg i agree

That's super cool, Natalia! 

Or your dogs can do your homework for you.

You're welcome, Savannah.

Thanks for being our Wonder Friend, duncan!

well thats sad that ur dog ate ur homework

It would be very sad if that happened! Do you have any pet dogs, Caitlyn?

Thanks for sharing, Lucas B! We hope that your dog hasn't eaten your homework!!

You have a very nice dog, peyton! Also, check out  Wonder 1499: When Was the Great War? for more information about World War I!

Camden Riley Justice

Hi, Camden! If you have a video of your dog eating your homework, we think that there is a good chance that your teacher would believe you! Hopefully your dog has never eaten your homework, though!! ?

C j/CamdenJustice

my dog broke my computer and NOW i have a new one AND MAKE SHURE YOU NEVER FED A DOG CHOKELET

That's right, Cj! We even have a Wonder about why you shouldn't give chocolate to dogs:   Wonder 1522: Why Can't Dogs Eat Chocolate?

Uh-oh! ?

maby you don't have any toys thats what made our dog stop dolng that.

Thanks for joining the conversation, camden!!

Thanks for sharing, jayden! It sounds like your dog pixie lived a great, long life!! We don't recommend chocolate for dogs, though.  If you are concerned about Nada's eating habits, you may want to make an appointment to see a veterinarian.  Sometimes, though, dogs eat things like paper because they are bored! 

Great question, Zehra! Dogs can eat things they're not supposed to when they're bored!

my dog eat some of my moms brownies

Uh, oh! We hope not too many, because dogs shouldn't eat chocolate!  Wonder 1522: Why Can't Dogs Eat Chocolate? will explain why!!

Thanks for your concern for our canine friends, joshua! We actually have a Wonder about this topic, as well! Check out  Wonder 1522: Why Can't Dogs Eat Chocolate?

? Thanks, Amara!! We are SO happy to have you WONDERing with us!!

good job wonderopolis

? Thanks!! We love having you as our Wonder Friend!!

? Thanks for WONDERing with us, Aiden!!

Hi, Paige! Dogs may tend to eat anything in sight due to boredom, not stupidity! We hope this helps!!

Hi, Paige! Thanks for WONDERing with us!

Thanks for stopping by, Wendy!

Hello!! We are WONDERing about how dogs can eat homework!! What are you WONDERing about??

? Oh, no!! We're so sorry to hear that, Patricia! We hope that you were able to get an extension!

We're happy to help and that you're researching this information before you get a dog, Eloise!!! What type of dog are you planning to get?

Thanks for letting us know, Brady!! 

No way I never knew that dogs are crazy and I am in 5th grade.

Thanks for joining the discussion, Wendy!

It sounds like you know this from experience, Max!! Do you have a dog?

i dowt that the dog ate your book

Thanks for sharing, Mark!! Dogs do sometimes eat paper, and this can be due to boredom.  We hope that the library book didn't cost too much to replace!!

they eat paper from time to time

You're right, mya!! Thanks for sharing!!

I do too because some of my friend's dogs ate there homework.

I like to chew paper from time to time

That's cool, James--but we recommend making sure it's clean paper!

Dogs do sometimes eat paper, so it is a possibility! ?

Did a dog ever eat your homework, bob?? ?

Isabel the monster

That's awesome, Isabel!! What are your dogs names?? Have they ever tried to eat YOUR homework?? Thanks for WONDERing with us!!!

? Thanks, franklin! 

We're sorry to hear about your birds, alexis.  Have your dogs ever eaten your homework? (Or your chickens or bunny??)

? That is very unlucky! Hopefully she was able to reprint the paper, or get an extension!!

My sister did get an extension on her homework. Because she brought the rest of the rip up papers:\

Whew! That's good news! We're glad she was able to get the extension, though hopefully she didn't have to make up too much extra work!

That is WONDERful to hear, A.K.!!! We're thrilled that you're learning with us!!

Thank you so much for sharing, Taylor! We love learning new things here at Wonderopolis, and we're thrilled that you do, too!!  Wonder #1149: Can Wolves Be Tamed? sounds like a perfect Wonder for you to check out!

? So sorry to hear that, Emily! Do any of your friends have dogs?

Dogs are awesome but there a lot of work

That is absolutely true, James! Some of the work can be fun, like playing with them. But, cleaning up poop isn't fun, that's for sure! 

Ha Ha I don't think that is the reason.:)

Me either!!

Well, Ally, having a dog certainly does come with its own set of responsibilities. Some people think its worth it for the companionship. Other people prefer cats. Which do you like better: dogs, or cats?

No problem, charlotte. Your friends are probably just jealous of how awesome you and your dogs are! But keep those avocados out of reach, just to be safe.

Heehee, that gave us a laugh, Boi! Thank you for WONDERing with us!

We are glad you finally found the answer, Isaac!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, jordan! We're glad you are WONDERing and learning with us! ?

i eat my homework too:)

You all are funny, Boi! Homework seems like it'd be a bit on the bland side! ?

mecer i know you eat homwork

We bet that doesn't taste too good, jordan! ?

That's interesting, mercer! We hope you spit the paper out! :P

Thanks for commenting, Amaris! Here's a related Wonder that you may like: Wonder #577. :)

Wonder Friend

my dog ate my homework too i had to email my teacher or she woudn,t believe me.

That stinks, Wonder Friend! We hope it didn't impact your grade too much!

Oh my, hoi man! We bet your friend was frustrated! Thanks for sharing your connection to this Wonder. :)

Thanks for commenting, Ava! Have you seen Wonder #1113? It's all about autocorrect! :)

my name is Shayna! pronounced sh-ae-nu

Hey there, Shayna! We're glad you are WONDERing with us! :)

Thank you for asking, Shaelyn! We are doing well! How are you? We hope great!! :)

Hello there, michhele! We sure are glad you visited Wonderopolis! :)

Hi, karina! We're glad you liked this Wonder! It's always GREAT when we learn something new! Keep an eye on your dog when he's around books! Hehe! :)

Ava Gelinas

Hi, Ava! It's definitely possible for dogs to eat your homework! We're glad you liked this Wonder! :)

nicole mack

Thalia woof.

Me too I want a dog but I have a baby

Thanks for joining the discussion, Thalia! :)

Hi, maanya! That would be AWESOME! We hope you get to have a dog one day, too! :)

Thanks for being a supportive Wonder Friend! We appreciate you joining the discussion! :)

Hi, nicole! Puppies are adorable! Dogs are WONDERful pets! :)

amanda.grant

Hi, amanda! Sounds like you're good friends! Check out Wonder #1238: What Does It Mean To Be a Good Friend? Have fun WONDERing! :)

We do, too, amanda! Dogs are WONDERful animals and great companions! :)

i dont i do my homework. i like pizza (Off Topic)

Thanks for joining the discussion, Wonder Friend! It's important to do your homework so you can practice what you're learning in school. We also like pizza! We encourage you to use the search box to find Wonders about pizza to explore! :)

Thanks for sharing your opinion, angel! Have a WONDERful week! :)

Hi, Wonder Friend! We're not sure if this would work! Better to be safe than sorry and do your homework! :)

what is the author name?

Great question! Thanks for asking! Wonderopolis is brought to you by the National Center for Families Learning. They would be the author of the Wonders! :)

We're THRILLED you liked this Wonder, jacques! Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis and leaving a comment! :)

Welcome, Adsur! Dogs are WONDERful pets. However, we don't want them to eat your homework! That wouldn't be good! :)

But then how would you be graded on it, Nicola? Better stick with kibble! ;-)

Hi, Kasey! We're glad this Wonder reinforced something you already knew. That's GREAT! Thanks for WONDERing with us! :)

Hello, Josie! We hope you had fun exploring this Wonder. Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis! :)

Hi, Skeley! We don't know. Every dog is different. To be safe we would keep our homework in a very safe place! :)

That's good to hear! Thanks for leaving a comment. Keep up the GREAT enthusiasm for WONDERing! :)

Oh no, roxie! But, then you wouldn't have it to turn in after doing all that work! :)

Alex Oczkus

We're glad you enjoyed WONDERing with us, Alex! We hope you have an awesome day! :)

Good point, ayden! Puppies sometimes chew things they aren't supposed to because they don't know any better. You're right! It's important to always put your homework in a safe place, just in case! :)

i hate that puppy cant eat my homework!!!!

Why would you want your puppy to eat your homework?? Then you wouldn't have it to show off your hard work! :)

Hi, gunnar! Dogs can eat broccoli, but it's always important to check with your vet and to remember to only feed them human foods in moderation. Every dog's diet is different. It's great you're checking to see if it is good for them before feeding them, but be sure to always ask your vet first! :)

Can that dog eat my h.w

Hi, WONDER friend! It is a possibility, so be sure to put it in a very safe place! Thanks for joining the discussion! :)

Wonderopolis

Welcome, Darksaber! According to Pet WebMD , chocolate can be poisonous to dogs if consumed in a large enough amounts. Other times, it simply may just make your dog sick. There is no way to know for sure how your dog will react, so you must be very cautious when dogs are around chocolate. Thanks for sharing this information with our WONDER friends! :)

Jumpin' Jordan and Jo

You're welcome, Jumpin' Jordan and Jo! We're glad to hear you learned some new things with us! Your fun name reminded us of a few Wonders of the Day! :) :) We hope you'll enjoy these: #703 Who Jumps the Highest? #1093 Do You Double Dutch?

Thanks for stopping by Wonderopolis and sharing your questions, Abigail S.! There have been a couple times our dog (and once even our cat!) has nibbled a bit on our homework! But fortunately, we caught it before he ate the whole thing! Have you had a pet take some bites out of your homework? ;)

kirrily Johnson

We're sorry to hear that you have LOTS of homework, Kirrily! We do know that homework is important for learning. :( We are SUPER glad to have you WONDERing with us today! :D

Oh no, Graham. It sounds like all that "people food" may hurt your dog's stomach. We think it is best to stick with the dog food. Thanks for sharing with us today! :-)

We're glad you enjoyed it, Nicole! Thanks for WONDERing with us today! :-)

Oh no, Morgan! Paper is not good for dogs. Be sure to read the Wonder article, especially the list of foods that are dangerous to dogs. It is always best to feed your dog only food and treats recommended by your vet. Thanks for WONDERing with us today! :-)

Absolutely, Cora. That looked like a mess! We are so glad that you enjoyed this Wonder. Thanks for WONDERing with us! :-)

WONDERful guess, Ann! Check back tomorrow to find out if your Wonder Prediction was correct! Keep WONDERing! :-)

That would be nice, Bryce! Thanks for WONDERing with us! Keep WONDERing! :)

Mrs. LaLonde's Class

WOOHOO, we're so glad you enjoyed this woof-tastic Wonder, Mrs. LaLonde's Class! We want to keep our pets nice and healthy, so we're glad to learn that dogs shouldn't eat chocolate (even if they want to)! However, they sure do like peanut butter... and paper, too! Thanks for sharing your WONDERful comment today! :)

Thanks so much, Erin! We're so excited that you visited today! We hope your dog doesn't get a hold of your homework! :)

Very cool, Wonder Friend N! We're so glad you are visiting us today to learn about dogs and their love of homework! We Wonder what your project covers? :)

Hey there, Momo! We are glad you're doing your homework, and we hope your dog doesn't mistake your work for a tasty treat! We have lots of awesome topics to Wonder about here at Wonderopolis! You can check out our categories section and search by topic, or you can visit us every day for a brand new Wonder! :)

Girls 4 ever

Hey there, Girls 4 ever! We are glad you're WONDERing with us today! We know that things happen from time to time, but excuses are not as WONDERful as the truth. We Wonder if you have ever had your dog eat your homework? YIKES! Thanks for sharing your comment today! :)

We think that's an excellent word to describe the dog in the Wonder video, Patrick! That is one energetic dog! We Wonder if homework tastes good to dogs, or if they would prefer to eat some dog food instead? Thanks for sharing your comment with us today! :)

Thanks so much, Brad! We're glad to hear it! :)

We don't think homework would taste very good, that's for sure, Brad! We know that some dogs, especially our four-legged friends here at Wonderopolis, sometimes eat things that don't taste the best. This includes furniture... homework... and even old sneakers! We know that dogs are great, but we have to keep important things, like homework and shoes, far away from them! :)

Hi there Tanner, thanks for sharing your story with us! We are glad your friend was able to turn in another copy of his homework-- his dogs must have been very hungry! We hope you have a SUPER day! :)

Thanks for sharing your personal connection to this Wonder, Noel! We think teachers might hear "the dog ate my homework" a lot! :-)

YIKES! We don't think that's a very healthy habit for your dog OR your grades, Eipco! Thank you for sharing your comment with us today...we appreciate it! :-)

That's a really great guess, Janelle! Thanks so much for hanging out in Wonderopolis with us today! :-)

Moa fahlstedt

You've got THAT right, Moa! We thought it was cute to see the little puppy try to play tug of war and tear up the girl's homework. We hope she didn't have to do her homework again because her dog tried to eat it! :-)

awesome Mackenzie ttyl

We're not sure, Mackenzie! We think maybe they see it as something their owners were playing with (or working on), so maybe they think it's a toy and they want to play with it, too? We're sure there are other reasons why dogs eat homework, so it's fun to WONDER about that! :-)

Hi, Emily! Thanks for letting us know you like cheese. Have you visited any of these CHEESY Wonders? Wonder #52 - Why Is Cheddar Cheese Orange? https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-is-cheddar-cheese-orange/ Wonder #322 - Why Are Some Cheeses Stinky? https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-are-some-cheeses-stinky/ Happy WONDERing! :-)

Team Mcneil22

Those are really creative excuses, Team McNeil 22! We hope none of our smart, amazing, clever Wonder Friends ever have to use any of them, though! We hope everyone's homework gets done and handed in on time! That would be WONDERful, wouldn't it? Thanks so much for sharing your comment with everyone in Wonderopolis today! :-)

Team McNeil #4

We're SO GLAD to hear the new information and word you learned by exploring this Wonder, Team McNeil #4! We think there are toxins that dogs react to inside grapes. Since raisins are dried grapes, it makes sense that they would be harmful to dogs, also. Good luck trying to change the habit of feeding your dog table scraps! We know from experience that it is a tough habit to break! :-)

Team Unger 10

We think it's SUPER cool that you searched for a topic you were interested in to see what Wonders would pop up, Team Unger 10! Way to go! Dogs who ingest avocados can become very, very sick because of the toxin, "persin," that is found in the avocados. Thanks so much for WONDERing even MORE about this Wonder after you explored it! :-)

We hope her teacher believes her, too, Team McNeil 22! That dog was so cute...it must REALLY like homework a LOT! :-)

Thanks for visiting Wonderopolis today and sharing about your dog, Star! We'd say it might be a good idea to keep him or her away from your homework! :-)

Well one time a person at my Spanish class said her dog ate her homework and the teacher asked for proof.The next day the student brought a bag of paper shreads

Oh no, Cam! That probably wasn't very pretty! Thanks for sharing your story! :)

We think that's a good thing, Skelekian! Thanks for leaving us this comment today! :-)

Hi, Zoe! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about dogs today! We appreciate your comment! :-)

Team wilch 5

We're glad to see you are exploring different Wonders in Wonderopolis today, Team Wilch 5! We bet your teachers will appreciate you NOT using the "my dog ate my homework" excuse! :-)

Happy Monday, Annie! Thanks so much for visiting this Wonder of the Day® and for letting us know you thought it was COOL! :-)

andrew hattenbach

That sounds like a really good idea, Andrew! Thank you for telling us that you liked this Wonder and that you learned a few new facts about something you've always WONDERed! Have a WONDERful day! :-)

That's a GREAT question, Britney! We're not sure how paper would digest inside a dog (or even a human)! That is something we will BOTH have to do a bit more WONDERing about! :-)

Thanks so much for sharing your personal connection to this Wonder of the Day®, Britney! We're sorry your dog ate your homework before...we hope he/she doesn't do it anymore! :-)

Hi, CR1 Eric! You have to put the colon symbol ":" right beside the end parenthesis symbol ")" to make a smiley face. So, : PLUS ) EQUALS :)! :-)

Jessie Leigh

Thanks for sharing about Pugsly, Jessie! She is a really lucky dog to have such an AWESOME owner like you who loves and cares for her so very much! :-)

sassycat923

That puppy certainly WAS cute, SassyCat923! Thanks for sharing your comment with everyone in Wonderopolis today! :-)

Thanks for letting us know what you thought about the video for this Wonder of the Day®, Marion! We appreciate your comment! :-)

Hello, Michael! It's so great to hear from you today! Thank you for visiting Wonderopolis! :-)

Thanks for sharing a story about what happened to your homework, Clayton! We hope your teacher still accepted it when you tried to turn it in! :-)

Hi, Audrey! We don't think it would be a good idea to teach your dog to eat your homework...he might think other important papers (like certificates or money) are homework and eat them, too! YIKES! :-)

We like that creative excuse, Hannah! So, what you would actually be telling your teacher is that YOU ate YOUR OWN homework! Thanks for making us smile today...you're a GREAT Wonder Friend! :-)

Hello, Kimberly! Thanks so much for this GREAT comment! We hope your dog doesn't eat your homework tonight, either! Thanks for WONDERing what tomorrow's Wonder might be about. We WONDER that every day, too! :-)

That's a clever excuse, Jordan! We hope your neighbor's cat doesn't really do that to your homework! That would be a less-than-PURRRRfect situation! :-)

You're RIGHT, Ashlyn! We have all seen the proof in the video for this Wonder! Wasn't that puppy super cute? :-)

Thanks for letting us know you liked today's Wonder and the video for it, too, Chloe! We know from experience how badly hitting your "funny bone" can hurt...it's not very funny when it first happens!

Miriam and Ruthie and Jami

Happy Wednesday, Miriam, Ruthie and Jami! Thanks so much for leaving us this enthusiastic comment and for letting us know you liked the video for this Wonder of the Day®! To make the smiley face, you type a colon and an ending parenthesis. : + ) = :) You can also make a "winking" smiley face by typing a semicolon and an ending parenthesis. ; + ) = ;) How about a smiley face with sunglasses? Just type the number eight and an ending parenthesis. 8 + ) = 8)

Wonder Friend I-L-P

Hi, Wonder Friend I-L-P! Let us know if your teacher believed you about your dog eating your homework! We hope you remember to bring all your homework home and back to school next time! Have a WONDERful day! :-)

CR1 student/Eric

We're really happy to hear that, Eric! Thanks so much for visiting Wonderopolis at home, too! We think it's neat that your friend might have made the video for this Wonder of the Day®! :-)

We think the dog in the video ate the girl's homework because of two reasons, Blake! The first reason is that it is a puppy, and puppies LOVE to chew things...even important things! The second reason is maybe the puppy thought the homework was just another toy to play with! :-)

We WONDERed the same thing, Abby! We wonder if she did her homework over again? :-)

abigail Rae

Thanks so much for visiting this Wonder of the Day®, Abigail! We're glad you liked it and that you learned something new! :-)

brooklyn from team loganbill

Thanks so much for visiting this Wonder and for wishing us a WONDERful day, Brooklyn! We think your mom is awesome for bringing you your homework when you forgot it on a Friday! She sounds like a GREAT mom! :-)

We're super sorry your dog had kidney problems, Maya. We're proud of you for learning something from this Wonder that might help you and your parents determine what could have caused your dog's health issues. Thanks so much for visiting Wonderopolis today! :-)

We think your dogs sound like awesome pets, Maya! Thank you for sharing a little about them with us today! :-)

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Mischeivious Missy

WOW! That's a LOT of happy, Missy! Thanks so much for making us smile even MORE today! YOU ARE AWESOME! :-)

We hope that too, Avery! We know our Wonder Friends (like you) work really hard on their homework, so we hope it all makes it back to school and gets checked off as completed! Thank you for sharing your comment today! :-)

ashlyn from mrs.fradys class

Thanks for leaving us the GREAT comment, Ashlyn! No, we don't have a dog that ate our homework, but as you can see by reading the comments on today's Wonder, a few of our other Wonder Friends do! :-)

Justin and Drew

Hi there, Justin and Drew! Thanks for leaving us this comment today! We think dogs eat homework (and other things they shouldn't eat) because they think it's something fun to play with. They might also think it's fun when their owners chase them around saying, "Please give me that back! That's my homework!" They think it is a game! :-)

TOMMYATKERRCK

WOW, Tommy! That's a LOT of homework eating! Thank you for sharing about your dog today...we hope he or she finds something else to play with besides the homework you spent so much time working on! :-)

JERON AT KERRICK

It sounds like Coco is very adventurous, Jeron! We bet she is very lovable, though, and we bet she loves you a whole bunch! :-)

alexia garcia

Hello, Alexia! We're guessing Simon's dog ate his MATH homework? We think it was funny that Simon thought his dog wanted to learn multiplication! Thanks for making us smile this afternoon! You are a GREAT Wonder Friend! :-)

Carly at North Todd Elem.

Thanks for letting us know what you liked best about the video for today's Wonder, Carly! Also, thanks for sharing your story about your sister and your homework! :-)

Lucas at North Todd Elem.

It sounds like homework is tough to keep a hold of in your house, Lucas! We appreciate you sharing your comment with us today...THANK YOU! :-)

Mason at North Todd Elem.

Thanks for hanging out in Wonderopolis today and for sharing your personal connection to this Wonder, Mason! We think you ROCK! :-)

It's interesting to learn that, isn't it, Charlie? We thought it was also interesting to learn all the things that can make dogs super sick if they eat them. We are going to be EXTRA careful now about what we feed our pets in Wonderopolis! :-)

That's a clever one, Ingrid! We sure hope that doesn't really happen, but we're glad you shared your creativity with us today...THANKS! :-)

We like that excuse a lot, Qualee! It's really awesome and super creative...GREAT job! :-)

Lanyja at Kerrick

We really appreciate you sharing your personal connection to today's Wonder of the Day®, Lanyja! We hope your dog doesn't try to eat your homework again! :-)

josh at kerrick

We bet there are a LOT of dogs out there that think homework is more fun to play with than a squeaky toy or a ball, Josh! :-)

Rileyatkerrick

YIKES, Riley! That must be super frustrating! Thanks for sharing your comment with us today! :-)

We think some dogs might eat homework because they think the paper the homework is written on is just another toy to play with, Sarah! Thanks so much for sharing your view on dogs eating homework! :-)

Hi, Johnathan! We'd say you've got a really WONDERful dog if he or she does not eat your homework! Thanks for sharing your comment with us today! :-)

We think you should give your dogs an extra hug and play with them for a little longer than normal today because they leave your homework alone, Caroline! They sound like pretty awesome pets to us! :-)

Hannah from Team Turner

Hello, Hannah! We're not sure about the first time that excuse was used, but we think it was creative, and we hope the person who first said it was really telling the TRUTH! :-)

WOW! We sure do like those excuses your class came up with, Mr. K! They are really, really creative! Thank you for sharing them with us today! :-)

We like that guess a LOT, Zoey! Thanks for letting us know what you think tomorrow's Wonder will be about! :-)

Mischievious Missy :)

Those are both VERY creative excuses for not having your homework, Missy! Thank you for sharing them with your friends in Wonderopolis today! Thanks for taking a guess about tomorrow's Wonder, too! :-)

autumn school girl

Thanks for sharing your personal connection to today's Wonder, Autumn! We're glad you were able to prove that your puppy ate your homework! You will always have a funny story to tell about that! :-)

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I think this article was very interesting and it had a lot of humor in it. I wonder if cats have a strange behavior like this as well.

Great question, Daniel! We think cats are more likely to lay on your homework than eat it, but some may. ;-) Thanks for WONDERing with us! :-)

Mrs. Newland's Class

Thanks so much for leaving us this GREAT comment today, Mrs. Newland’s Class! We're glad you explored today's Wonder together and learned some new facts! We think you guys are AWESOME Wonder Friends! :-)

Wonderopolis aka PREET

This is really funny. I used all of those and I used my friend fell of into the the lake and my homework drowned. :) :) :):) :) :):) :) :):) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :):) :) :):) :):) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

That is a funny excuse, PREET! Thanks for sharing with us today! :-)

wonderopolis

This is really good, so teachers now know sometimes kid's are not lying from time to time. :)

It is true. A dog can eat your homework. Just be sure to follow the tips in the Wonder to keep them from doing it. Thanks for WONDERing with us! :-)

That's a really WONDERful guess, Vikkie! We're so excited to visit Wonderopolis tomorrow to see if you are correct...we would like to learn more about how the states got their names! :-)

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Question 1 of 3

Which of these is probably NOT the reason your dog ate your homework?

• a boredom Not Quite!
• b hunger Not Quite!
• c curiosity Not Quite!
• d sabotage Correct!

Question 2 of 3

What can you do to keep your dog from eating your homework?

• a Eat a sandwich while doing your homework. Not Quite!
• b Stay focused on your homework, paying your dog little to no attention. Not Quite!
• c Give your dog plenty of exercise and distractions to keep him from getting bored. Correct!
• d Watch TV with your dog. Not Quite!

Question 3 of 3

What can you do to ensure that your dog is well-fed?

• a Stick to food and treats recommended by your veterinarian. Correct!
• b Give your dog lots of fatty treats. Not Quite!
• c Share your meals with your dog. Not Quite!
• d Ask the neighbors to feed your dog. Not Quite!

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My Dog Ate My Homework… and Other Excuses

September 1st, 2015  | 

It’s back to school season.

Whether you’re a student or a business executive, the back-to-school vibe is noticeable in classrooms, cubicles and conference rooms as calendars fill more quickly, cooler weather energizes behavior, and new assignments adopt an increasing sense of urgency.

The period between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is my busiest time of year as I work with leadership teams in strategic planning sessions to help colleagues agree on priorities, responsibilities, and action items for the coming year and beyond.

Last year in Forbes Leadership Forum, I discussed why most company strategic plans fail . One reason is lack of accountability.

Talk is Cheap

Part of what makes accountability difficult is that when you work with smart people and things don’t get done well or on time, you often are handed excuses.

No organization—not even high-performing organizations— is immune from the well-crafted excuse. What separates high-performing organizations from all the others is the way in which excuses are handled.

“My dog ate my homework” is an excuse that sprang from a 1905 anecdote about a minister temporarily filling in for another minister.

At the time, William ApMadoc, a contributor to the Welsh journal The Cambrian , indicated the initial punchline had more to do with brevity than an excuse for non-performance.

In ApMadoc’s telling, a visiting minister asked a clerk how his sermon had been received, and, in particular, whether it had been long enough. Upon hearing from the clerk the length was sufficient, the minister replied that just before the service his dog had eaten some of the paper on which the sermon was written. “Well,” replied the clerk, who felt his regular preacher’s sermons could be shorter, “couldn’t you give our vicar a pup from your dog?”

It was not until 1965 in Bel Kaufman’s best-selling novel Up the Down Staircase that students blamed their failure to complete an assignment on their dogs.

Since then, “My dog ate my homework” has become code in and out of classrooms for a lame excuse.

In the workplace, time, talent and treasure (money) are the three commodities every organization has in common, and here’s what lack of accountability sounds like:

Time I put out fires all day, so there’s no time to work on my stuff. Our deadlines are unrealistic. The deadline was unclear. I spend my time doing my boss’s work. I spend my time doing work my staff should be doing. I spend my time on tactical—not strategic—work. We can’t always get it right the first time but we can make time to fix it. There’s no sense of urgency around here. I ran out of time. His performance will improve with time.

Talent We don’t have the right people. We don’t have enough people. We don’t have enough of the right people. The people on our team can’t think for themselves. He let me down. These people don’t report to me, so their work is not my fault. I didn’t know I was allowed to make that decision. I didn’t understand the assignment. It wasn’t my job. The changes we made are preventing me from getting things done. My team won’t like me if I confront their performance issues. People here are not team players. That person is a family member and the rules don’t apply to her. We can’t keep our best people so we are not very effective.

Treasure We underprice what we sell so we can’t staff properly. We can’t agree on priorities so our budgets are spread too thin. Our customers beat us up on price so we can’t charge more. We are constantly being asked to do more with less, including more work for the same salary. Money is tight so we can’t hire the people we need.

It’s a vicious circle, and the excuses are infinite.

Talk is cheap so we often buy it. When we do, accountability suffers.

Moving from Excuses to Accountability

As leaders, we get the behavior we tolerate. So when it comes to holding people accountable, we are often our own worst enemy.

That was my story.

Despite achieving record financial results year over year, the firm I founded and led could have accomplished more. There would have been more fun and less drama if I knew then what I know now about accountability.

At the time, I accepted excuses that sounded logical even when I knew better. I allowed emotions to cloud my decision making. I delayed having a conversation with my underperforming partner because it was easier to avoid a difficult conversation than having one. Instead of practicing accountability, I practiced avoidance.

By the time I asked my partner to leave, I had learned three valuable lessons:

• Clear expectations must be established. I assumed my partner and I both had the same definition of success. We didn’t. My failure to set clear expectations meant evaluating his performance was subjective. Excuses were plentiful, performance was lacking and accountability was non-existent. When your purpose, expectations, and rewards are crystal clear, your employees will embrace accountability as a way to become even more successful. The opposite is also true: If you are not clear about everything—vision, values, objectives, strategy, rewards, and, yes, penalties—the likelihood of achieving your vision is slim.
• Bad news does not improve with age. I avoided discussing my partner’s performance issues for too long because I assumed his performance would improve. Now I know that as soon as you see a problem, it’s best to address it immediately. Failure to speak frankly with the person about his or her performance means nothing will change.
• It’s not personal. Yes, you’re talking with a person, but leave excuses, emotions, and opinions behind. Stick to the facts, set a plan to get performance back on track, and communicate specific consequences for underperformance. If underperformers require termination, do it professionally and move on.

The day after we separated, my partner called to say he appre­ciated the straightforward, professional, and respectful manner in which I had handled our final meeting.

Even though these com­ments reflected well on his gracious acceptance of tough news, they reminded me that everyone feels better when accountability issues are addressed.

Excuses are substitutes for effort.

As a leader, be careful you’re not creating excuses for yourself over a difficult decision that is yours alone to make.

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About the Author: Greg Bustin advises some of the world’s most admired companies and leaders, and he’s dedicated a career to working with CEOs and the leadership teams of hundreds of companies in a range of industries. He’s facilitated more than 250 strategic planning sessions, he’s delivered more than 600 keynotes and workshops on every continent except Antarctica, and he coaches leaders who are inspired to take their career to the next level. His fourth leadership book— Accountability: The Key to Driving a High-Performance Culture (McGraw-Hill) —is a Soundview Executive Best Business Book.

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My Dog Ate My Homework: How to Correct Unwanted Dog Behavior

Sometime throughout your life you may have heard (or possibly used) the old expression, “the dog ate my homework.” Hopefully, you haven’t had to actually deal with your four-legged friend using your work assignment as a midday snack. If they are exhibiting unwanted behavior like chewing on things that aren’t theirs, we can help.

Dogs, especially puppies, are delicate animals that need to feel loved, safe, and secure within our homes. When our furry friends do something we don’t like, the last thing we want to do is try to correct the behavior in a way that makes them feel confused or scared. Luckily, there are plenty of positive ways to address and correct your dog’s behavior that won’t cause unnecessary stress for you or your pooch.

Identifying Bad Behavior

Before you can correct your dog’s bad habits, you need to be able to identify what is and is not bad behavior. Though some “bad” behaviors are common characteristics of all dogs, the problem arises when the action becomes excessive, damaging, or unwelcome.

Common bad habits that may need to be addressed include:

• Excessive barking
• Biting and/or nipping

It is important to remember that a lot of factors can impact a dog’s behavior. Their breed, age, medical history, and past experiences all shape how they act and how they may respond to training. There are also many different reasons why your dog may act out that range from separation anxiety to sheer boredom .

Is your dog acting out because they are seeking attention? Or maybe they are just unfamiliar with a new situation and that makes them anxious. It is helpful to identify potential causes of behavior problems to help better understand what training they may need.

No matter the reason for the misdeeds, it’s important to stop undesirable behavior before it becomes part of your dog’s normal routine. Luckily, there are a few methods you can use to address and correct bad behavior that when executed properly, can help most dogs curb their harmful habits.

Preventing Bad Behavior

Once you have identified your dog’s bad behavior, you can begin to formulate a plan to address and correct the troublesome trait. The most important factor to remember is that punishment is not the answer. Instead, use positive reward-based correction and training to teach your dog that good things happen when they do what you ask.

Corrections Instead of Punishments

Corrections are used to help your pup learn right from wrong. The purpose of a correction is to demonstrate a fact to your dog, while gaining the ability to understand, and reduce, unwanted behaviors. We all make mistakes, but it’s important to teach our dogs to avoid the behaviors we don’t want, and to encourage them with the behaviors we do want. This makes for a happy home for both pup and pup parent.

Several behavioral corrections can be used to train your pooch the right and safe way. Two of the more popular correction methods are withholding a reward and reprimanding.

Withholding a Reward

During your training sessions, try giving your dog commands and reward them with some delicious Bil-Jac Little Jacs Training Treats  for the right behavior and withhold the treat if they do any unwanted dog behavior.

By repeating this exercise several times with your pooch, they will start to understand that they are only rewarded for doing the thing you want them to do. This form of training will help your dog create a positive association with good behaviors, which is much more effective than punishing a dog for bad behavior.

In contrast, withholding a reward when he or she doesn’t follow direction will teach your furry friend to avoid that behavior in the future. For some pups, withholding a reward is all they need to correct their bad dog behavior.

Reprimanding the Puppy

When withholding a reward isn’t enough, sometimes it makes sense to reprimand your puppy. This may sound intimidating, but reprimanding your puppy is not about scaring them or hurting your four-legged friend. Instead, it is simply creating a learning moment your dog can recognize as out of the norm to help signal something is not right.

Giving a simple but firm ‘NO!’ with a finger point or a brief leash tug is enough to alert your pup that they need to make an adjustment. By doing this, and withholding a reward, your dog should learn to adjust their behavior fairly quickly.

Redirection

Another way to correct unwanted dog behavior is through redirection. A lot of behavior that we as pet parents deem as “bad” is oftentimes just instinctive habits our pup can’t fully turn off. Chewing, barking, and digging are all habits that come naturally to our dogs, so it may be impossible to fully stop these behaviors. What we can do, however, is redirect our dog’s attention to less damaging activities when these “bad” behaviors occur.

If your dog is chewing, digging, jumping, or exhibiting a behavior you don’t like, offer them their favorite chew toy, play a few rounds of tug, or take them for a jog around the block. Sometimes even some basic exercise can help burn off steam and distract them from their initial bad actions.

S ocialization

When it comes to correcting unwanted dog behavior, socialization goes a long way.

Sometimes our furry friends act up because they are anxious, confused, or scared. When you regularly socialize your pup , they become more accustomed to different sounds, smells, and new sensations. These new experiences help your dog learn how to relax in unfamiliar situations, and in turn they are less likely to overreact or exhibit bad behavior like barking, jumping, biting, and chasing when caught off guard.

Work With a Trainer

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what our dog’s need. Luckily, dog trainers are a great resource to lean on when we aren’t sure how to help our furry friends. Professional Animal Trainer and TV Show Host Joel Silverman is a phenomenal source of information when it comes to raising, training , and caring for dogs of all ages. When asked about curbing bad behavior, Silverman offers some helpful advice to keep in mind:

“If you can catch a dog right when he’s starting to dig or chew and say, ‘knock it off,’ now you’re sending a message the dog can understand,” Silverman explains. “A verbal correction combined with preventative training, which is not giving the dog the opportunity to be in that situation, is how you get rid of those problems.”

Ultimately, the most important thing to do when you want to correct unwanted dog behavior is to remember that practice makes perfect. Dogs are smart and social animals and want to please their dog parents, so regularly reinforcing good behavior will help them stay consistent. Plus, training your pup and using corrections is a great way to build your bond and ensure a healthy and happy home for the whole family.

Want to learn more about what you can do to keep your furry friend happy, healthy, and well-behaved? Join our Best Friends Club today to receive our exclusive email newsletter full of informative articles, training tips, and members-only discounts on Bil-Jac dog food, treats, and other products.

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My Dog Ate My Homework

From the book The Biggest Burp Ever

My dog ate my homework. That mischievous pup got hold of my homework and gobbled it up.

My dog ate my homework. It’s gonna be late. I guess that the teacher will just have to wait.

My dog ate my homework. He swallowed it whole. I shouldn’t have mixed it with food in his bowl.

 — Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Reading Level: Grade 1

Topics: Animal Poems , School Poems

Poetic Techniques: Irony , Narrative Poems

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