Interpretations:Dog Walker

• Song
• Lyrics
• Interpretations
• Credits
• Guitar Tab
• Bass Tab
• Chronology

"I am a dog walker but someday I'll be a dog"

This suggests that a dog walker is lower on the hierarchy than a dog. It's like the dog walker is the dog's servant, and if he works hard enough, one day he'll get promoted all the way up to the position of Dog.--Mandaliet 22:00, 19 July 2011 (EDT)

The romance of the blood sport

The progression from dog walker to dog makes more sense if considered in the context of dogfighting, where a dog "walker"/handler merely prepares the dog for battle and the dog is the one who gets to rip a throat out.

The speaker of the song seems to be someone existing on the fringes of some organization of fighters (What is "The Battery"? Is that something real?) and wants to join in the fray or exact some sort of revenge on them, but his talent is mental rather than physical (his mind is a wrecking ball).--Afterward 18:05, 25 July 2011 (EDT)

OH HEY WELL, if the Battery is Battery Park, then maybe this is a bit more straightforward. This (scrawny? nerdy? insecure?) dude walks his dog through the park and evidently encounters lots of nasty dudes ("draculas") who intimidate him, but whom he would like to show a thing or two if he ever had the chance. In the park, the guy walking the dog has to be in control, but the dogs can do whatever they want. The dude in the song wants to move from being the passive, intellectual dog walker/"mind" to being the active, physical dog/wrecking ball. I am proud of this interpretation. --Afterward 21:29, 25 July 2011 (EDT)

Micheal Vick

To some extent though, basically the narrator is a caricature of Mr. Vick. The cronology of the song is middle to beginning to end. He's trying to convince himself that dog fighting is his destiny and he might die soon(time is a wrecking ball) in the middle of the song. The beginning is where the narrator is prepping the dog for the fight and feels just only slight sympathy for the dog(Must be hard for your draculas, draculas being a metaphor for the dog). The end is where he is watching the fight and becomes inspired by the dog to kill people only to become arrested and in prison and is still keeping the goal in mind(Right now i'm a dog walker but someday i'll be a dog).

The Stooges

Note the direct reference to The Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog" There seems to be a similarity in chord structures as well.

Funnily enough this song was mentioned by Flansburgh when he described Youth Culture Killed My Dog's origins to a french magazine --jimmyZenShinsThreeHundred11 (talk)

Time narrates?

I just noticed that the lyric sheet says, "time has a wrecking ball" but the song says "I have a wrecking ball" what does this mean? No idea. It's worth mention though.

The dog is the upward trend of capital rotation, the walker is stable capital reflection

Dr. Cade likes to bring this song up when he talks about economics (aka money). He says that it is about the way money, if you put it into a stagnant divisive pool, follows the kind of stress functions you otherwise see in a broken side market. I'm not 100% percent sure that's what the song is about, but its an excellent analogy.

Crazy Dog Guy

I've always thought this song was just about a person who's obsessed with dogs and the notion that "some day" he'll be a dog. In his head everyone around him is challenging him.

Showdown at The Battery

Probably walking his dog in the park. The "showdown" is the protagonist vs. everyone around him.

Put down that snowball now / Got no inclination to play around

To be honest, I don't know. Maybe it's just the protagonist avoiding human interaction?

Must be hard for you draculas / When nobody's scared of you

Everyone around him are the "draculas", he sees them as a threat when they probably aren't even paying attention to him.

I take the long way home / Stay realistic and stay awake

He's having trouble taking the long way home because he's daydreaming about his dog.

My mind is a wrecking ball / And someday my mind's gonna wreck all y'all

"You guys might be winning now, but just wait!"

Showdown at The Battery

Oh no, now he's passed out and dreaming about being in some dog "showdown."

Can you choose your weapon please? / Don't you know, I come prepared / I am a dog walker / But someday I'll be a dog

He thinks he's going to be a dog one day.

So some guy obsessed with dogs takes his dog for a walk in the park one day and passes out, daydreaming about dogs. I have a pretty straightforward interpretation, but that's what I think the song is about. --DoubleDenial (talk) 16:53, 22 April 2019 (EDT)

September 11th

Battery Park is in Lower Manhattan, New York City. To me, the dog represents the Wall Street financial markets and the impact the September 11th attacks (AKA 9/11) had on the US economy. "Time has a wrecking ball" is a pretty obvious attempt at invoking a building getting knocked down, which is... *yeah*, if you have even the most cursory knowledge of what went on that day. "I am a dog walker / But someday I'll be a dog" - Flans is singing from the perspective of someone who believes he's in control of the economy, such as a Wall Street trader. However, following the devastating attacks, he knows he'll be nothing more than a "dog" again; one of the masses, struggling against the financial hardships of country in recession.

Projecting insecurities

The Dog Walker is a paranoiac projecting insecurity onto his surroundings, making this song thematically similar to other songs dealing with inferiority complexes and projected narcissism (Can't Keep Johnny Down, etc).

Showdown at The Battery. A showdown is a dramatized confrontation. By calling it a "showdown", the Dog Walker heightens the nature of his encounter as a way of legitimating his petty fears.

Put down that snowball now / Got no inclination to play around. Snowballs are harmless, but the Dog Walker is afraid of the snowball throwers anyway. He says "play around" as if he could beat them solidly with little effort on his part.

I take the long way home / Stay realistic and stay awake. This is a reminder to remain vigilant in the presence of danger, but the Dog Walker is projecting his insecurities onto this harmless walk through what is probably a mundane middle-class suburb.

My mind is a wrecking ball. An empty threat voiced in the Dog Walker's head. A wrecking ball is bigger than a snowball, but you can't affect the world with thoughts alone, and he has demonstrated no capacity to do physical violence. He doesn't even throw a snowball back at his purported enemies.

And someday my mind's gonna wreck all y'all. He rests easy, convinced that "someday" his mind will wreck them.

Must be hard for you draculas/When nobody's scared of you. This is another projection. The Dog Walker lies about being frightened, hoping the snowball throwers will fall for his bluff and go bother someone else.

Can you choose your weapon please?. This is stated so politely it is likely the interpretation of a phrase the Dog Walker misheard and took for a threat.

Don't you know, I come prepared / I am a dog walker. He uses the dog as another psychological defense mechanism. If he didn't have it he would be alone and vulnerable. He says "don't you know" as if he must convince his opponents that the dog is a big deal. He probably walks a Poodle or a Havanese, not a Dobermann.

But someday I'll be a dog. Dogs can bark and bite people, abilities the Dog Walker is envious of.

--Nsage (talk) 14:49, 14 November 2023 (EST)