Where "Dog and Bone" Comes From
"Dog and bone" rhymes with "phone" and is documented from the mid-1940s, when telephones became common enough in households to need an informal name. It belongs to the Cockney rhyming slang tradition brought to Australia with British migrants, and entered Australian slang where it has remained in the vocabulary ever since.
The expression has aged well because the target word ("phone") has remained central to daily life even as the technology changed from wall-mounted handsets to mobile devices. "Get on the dog" is still intelligible to most Australians, even those who don't regularly use rhyming slang.
Source:
"Get off the dog and bone!"
How Aussies Actually Use It
Mostly used now with a wink, often by older generations telling someone to answer or stop hogging the phone — "get off the dog and bone" has the same energy as a mum yelling up the stairs.
Younger Aussies tend to know it as a fun bit of heritage slang rather than an everyday phrase.
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