# buy a dog and bark oneself

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/buy-a-dog-and-bark-oneself
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To do something that one has hired someone else to do.

## Examples

- If you hire a cleaner, do not buy a dog and bark yourself.
- The manager keeps rewriting the reports instead of trusting his team, effectively buying a dog and barking himself.
- By constantly micromanaging the tasks he delegated to his expert consultants, the CEO ended up buying a dog and barking himself, much to the frustration of his staff.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.