walk the dog. (yo yo) A yo yo trick in which the body of the yo yo rolls forward, as if on a leash like a dog.

The reason for this moniker is hardly a mystery; as you can plainly see in the illustration, the yo yo precedes the “walker” like a dog on a leash.

walk the dog. (fishing) A technique used by anglers to make a lure zigzag across the surface of the water.

“To ‘walk the dog,’ keep your rod tip down and make short (less than 1 foot) twitches with your rod tip while reeling at the same time. The lure will walk side to side as it moves toward you. Once again, vary the speed of your retrieve until you get bit.”

walk the dog. (sex) 1. Have sex. 2. Masturbate. 3. “Well, you drive to the park late at night. You open your car doors and you just lay there. And whoever walks up to the car, it’s on.”

In his hit record of the same name Rufus Thomas promises us that “If you don't know how to do it, I can show you how to walk the dog.” His 1965 performance on American Band Stand is punctuated by whistles and yips. For all the innuendo, this enduring classic (covered by The Who, Aerosmith, and The Rolling Stones among others) provides no specifics.

After a reminder that “the [human] male sexual organ [is] one of the many slang meanings of the word ‘dog,’” Marjorie Garber confidently informs us that walking the dog is “a slang term for sex.” It seems a believable definition, given the sexual overtones of dog references in 60s music (The Dog was said to be a lascivious dance that would prompt immoral thoughts and behaviors) and the use of “doggie style” to describe a position for sexual intercourse. However, examples are elusive. The host of the Baltimore radio show “The Love Zone” on 92Q, LaDawn Black, provided definition number three above, which sounds a lot like dogging or being a dogger. That is to say, it is more specific than Garber's description, which I infer references heterosexual intercourse in general. The Dictionary of Sexual Terms and Expressions’ definition—“jocular coinage for male masturbation”—seems to fit with the reference to dog as penis. However, I find it hard to imagine that Rufus Thomas was singing about how he was willing to demonstrate how to spank the monkey, to mix the animal metaphors.

Maybe it's just all tied up with the sexual connotations of dogs and, as Freud rememinds us, “that [a dog] is not ashamed of its sexual functions.”