The lyrics of "Dogs" were inspired by Townshend's friend Chris Morphet who had a fascination with greyhound racing.

The song references two dogs who raced in the 1968 English Greyhound Derby, "Camira Flash" and "Yellow Printer".

[5] Townshend booked this studio as it was one of the first in the UK to install professional reel-to-reel eight-track equipment.

That album is out of print, but "Dogs" is available in a 1990s era stereo remix on the box set 30 Years of Maximum R&B; a stereo mix of "Dogs (Part Two)" was included on the bonus disc of the Tommy deluxe edition in 2003.

"[3] On the contrary, author Mat Snow described the song as "amusing and zany but melodically unfocused.