Love me, love my dog is an idiom that may be older than you think. We will examine the meaning of the idiom love me, love my dog, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.
Love me, love my dog is an idiom that means to accept someone unconditionally. Love me, love my dog means that you must accept that person’s faults, quirks, and annoying habits in order to wholeheartedly love that person. The origin of the expression love me, love my dog is credited to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who used the idiom in a sermon; however, Saint Bernard calls the phrase “He who loves me, also loves my dog,” a common proverb of the time. Saint Bernard, a French monk, lived and worked in the 1100s, so the idiom love me, love my dog came into use sometime before that.
Examples
It was lovely, but I’d gone on about Buddy so much Jon could be in no doubt it was a case of love me, love my dog. (The Mirror)
“Love me, love my dog, and if you don’t love my dog you damn well can’t love me,” muttered a furious Churchill in 1941, after a member of the House of Commons had raised questions about the Prof’s influence. (Scientific American Magazine)
“Love me, love my dog” was not the workplace ethos of a generation or two ago. (Forbes Magazine)