Songfacts®:

• This song deals with the music industry, which was putting King's X through the wringer. Their longtime manager, Sam Taylor, had left them and they were looking for a new one. "We were having all these big-time managers fly in from LA to meet with us, and it was just really overwhelming," King's X frontman Doug Pinnick said in a Songfacts interview. "It's all about handshaking, glasses shaking, and the whole deal, just cutting the grass and trying to figure out what to do."
• The original title was "Good Man," with the lyric, "To be a good man." In King's X: The Oral History, Ty Tabor explained: "It didn't fit what I was trying to say. So I remember, in rehearsal, we were all sitting around trying to think of things to come up with. I think I just thought about the fact that I love dogs, and always have. I have three right now - I always have dogs. They're family to me."
• When they were brainstorming ideas for the title, they came up with some really dumb ideas, including "Green Man." When they came up with "Dogman," they knew they had a winner.
  
  "If we can't come up with anything, whoever comes up with the stupidest thing, we'll go for," Pinnick said.