Screwed the Pooch

Posted by ESC September 08, 2009 at 19:43In reply to Screwed the Pooch posted by Joe on September 08, 2009 at 19:35:

Screwed the Pooch - complete screwup.

I'd like to know the origin. The lame references/explanations I've found on the web typically guess that the origin is literal - carnal relations between human and dog - but this seems a simplistic, vulgar extension by folks with a limited appreciation for history and is not very logical. In the vacuum of authoritative comment on origins, I am left to guesswork. Wouldn't it make more sense that this phrase arose in the context of a hunter who accidentally kills his dog, thereby totally fucking up - an error anyone could make, but more likely someone careless, stupid, or lazy?

Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff 1979 popularized the term attributed to a Gus Grissom incident but:
he likely got it here from his exhaustive research:

The all-American boysý - Page 93
by Walter Cunningham, Mickey Herskowitz - Technology & Engineering - 1977 - 321 pages

"OF Gene just screwed the pooch." But it had absolutely no effect on the
assignments for Apollo 17. Consistent with the past handling of such incidents,

An online dictionary has a good explanation. But there are no footnotes. en.wiktionary.org/ wiki/screw_the_pooch