Crossword Genius

Boy's best friend to stop working, packing nothing and going on vacation (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

doggie

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

'boy's best friend' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'stop working packing nothing and going on vacation' is the wordplay.
'stop working' becomes 'die' (I've seen this in other clues).
'packing' indicates putting letters inside.
'nothing' becomes 'o' (looks like zero - 0).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'on vacation' means to remove the middle letters.
'going' with its middle taken out is 'gg'.
'o'+'gg'='ogg'
'die' enclosing 'ogg' is 'DOGGIE'.

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for doggie that I've seen is " pet".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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