Definitions for "Dog watch"
Keywords:  shift, dawn, naval, lobster, duty
Two-hour periods of duty between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. (1600 and 2000)
One of the two two-hour watches between 4 and 8 p.m. The dog watches permit a shift in the order of the watch every 24 hours so that the same men will not have the same watch every night.
a short watch period of two hours, rather than the normal four hours