A turn of phrase used, to the best of my knowledge, only by people originating from Scunthorpe, England.

Correct usage is in reference to something one possesses in such abundance that the amount surplus to requirements would form a sufficient road surface, if cemented to a dog. For instance, both you and your flatmate take advantage of a special offer on Cheesy Quavers at the local supermarket. A person from Scunthorpe might remark:

"Oooh. We've got enough Quavers here to cobble a dog"

Really, I have heard this used more than once by different people. However, I have never seen it done, and so I have doubts both about the practicality of Quavers as a road surface and about the suitability of a dog mounted road.

I must say that while the idea of cobbling a dog seemed odd enough to catch my softlink clicking fancy, I envisioned something relating to making shoes suitable to the canine pediment.

I still have no idea what that might mean.

Webster 1913 is kind enough to explain that a coble is a type of fishing boat used around Yorkshire

That doesn't much help, either, does it?

BlueDragon is nice enough to point out that cobbler means testicle in cockney rhyming slang.

Ummm... yeah! Okay...

The mascot for Quavers, Colin, is a dog. It's not clear if the phrase is only used in reference to sufficient or excessive quantities of quavers. (Note: All I know about Colin and his Quavers I learned from the puzzle game Pushover published by Ocean Software.)

I also seem to have some strange untracable recollection that a dog is a template or workbench or guide of some sort used in the making of shoes by hand. "Dogs" is, of course, slang for one's feet.

Ah, now we seem to be getting some place.

So, you have enough to make a shoe. Why only one? This doesn't seem to mesh with the usage to denote a circumstance of surplus. Perhaps the original concept was correct: enough (leather) to make 4 shoes... for a dog no less, which would probably just chew them up in short order.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.