Crossword Genius

Dog repeating phrase, almost missing out (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

griffon

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'dog' is the definition.
(I know that griffon is a type of dog)

'repeating phrase almost missing out' is the wordplay.
'repeating phrase' becomes 'riff' (I've seen this before).
'almost missing' becomes 'gon' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'out' is an insertion indicator.
'riff' inserted within 'gon' is 'GRIFFON'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for griffon that I've seen before include "breed of dog" , "Bird" , "dog? A monster" .)

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