A dogie is what they used to call a motherless calf.
Stray calves or those that have lost their mothers at too young an age are still called dogies, actually.
Often the term is colloquially used to refer to all bovine in a herd.
The origin of the word “dogie” is unknown, but may stem from an earlier descriptive term of a motherless calf with an extended belly from malnutrition, says the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
These hungry calves were once referred to as “dough-guts” because their bellies resembled bulging sacks of sour dough.
