Crossword Genius

Dog — the one we have — sweats (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

labours

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'sweats' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'dog the one we' is the wordplay.
'dog' becomes 'lab' (short for labrador).
'the one we' becomes 'ours' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lab'+'ours'='LABOURS'

'have' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for labours that I've seen before include "Toils" , "Some work" , "Works hard and makes great efforts" , "Shakespeare: 'Love's . . . . . . . Lost'" , "Hercules underwent 12 of them" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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