Perhaps sly male’s function: steer around girlfriend (3,3)

I believe the answer is:

dog fox

'perhaps sly male's' is the definition.
(old-fashioned term for a cunning man)

'function steer around girlfriend' is the wordplay.
'function' becomes 'do' (I've seen this in other clues).
'steer' becomes 'ox'.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'girlfriend' becomes 'gf' (common abbreviation for girlfriend).
'do'+'ox'='doox'
'doox' enclosing 'gf' is 'DOG-FOX'.

(Another definition for dog fox that I've seen is " Vulpine male".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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