The Dog in the Manger
- 2 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Aesop's Fables
A dog came into a barn on a cold afternoon looking for somewhere warm to sleep.
He found the manger, which was the long wooden trough the oxen ate from, piled high with fresh hay. It was soft and dry and out of the draught.
He climbed in, turned round twice, and went to sleep.
The oxen come in
At the end of the day the oxen came in from the field, tired and very hungry, and went straight to the manger.
The dog woke up.
He came up out of the hay barking and snarling with his teeth showing, and the oxen backed away.
They waited. They tried again from the other end. The dog ran along the manger snapping at them until they gave up and stood in the middle of the barn, looking at their own food.
What the ox said
One of them, the oldest, spoke at last.
"You cannot eat hay," he said. "You have never eaten hay in your life. You do not want it and you never will."
The dog said nothing and lay back down in it.
"You cannot eat it," said the ox, "and you will not let us eat it. What exactly is it that you want?"
The dog closed his eyes.
And the oxen stood in the cold barn all evening with a full manger in front of them and nothing at all in their stomachs.
Moral of the story
Do not spoil for others what you cannot use yourself. Guarding something you do not want is not protecting it, it is just spite.
Questions and answers
- Why did the dog get into the manger?
He was looking for somewhere warm and dry to sleep, and the hay was soft and out of the draught.
- What is a manger?
A long wooden trough that cattle and oxen eat from.
- What did the dog do when the oxen came in?
He barked and snarled and snapped at them until they backed away from their own food.
- Why could the dog not eat the hay himself?
Dogs do not eat hay. He had no use for it at all.
- What did the old ox point out?
That the dog neither wanted the hay nor would let anyone else have it, which made no sense.
Word meanings
- manger
- A long open box or trough that farm animals eat from.
- trough
- A long narrow container for animal food or water.
- draught
- Cold air moving through a room or building.
- spite
- Wanting to hurt or annoy someone for no good reason.
Questions about The Dog in the Manger
What is the moral of The Dog in the Manger?
The moral is that it is wrong to withhold from others something you have no use for yourself.
What does 'dog in the manger' mean as a phrase?
It describes a person who prevents others from having or enjoying something even though they do not want it themselves.
Why is this fable still useful for children?
It describes a very recognisable playground behaviour: refusing to share a toy you have stopped playing with. Children usually spot it immediately.
Does the dog have a reason for behaving this way?
The fable deliberately gives him none. That is the point of the old ox's question, which the dog cannot answer.