A letter or two from a low-down dog (5)
I believe the answer is:
corgi
'dog' is the definition.
(I know that corgi is a type of dog)
'a letter or two from a low-down' is the wordplay.
'a letter' becomes 'c'.
'two from a low-down' becomes 'gi' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'c'+'or'+'gi'='CORGI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for corgi that I've seen before include "Welsh 11" , "Royal pet" , "pet in 9 [CARDIFF]?" , "man's best friend" , "found in the kennels" .)