Vacuous hogwash depresses dishevelled woman looking after animals (11)

I believe the answer is:

shepherdess

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'woman looking after animals' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'vacuous hogwash depresses dishevelled' is the wordplay.
'vacuous' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'dishevelled' indicates an anagram.
'hogwash' with its middle taken out is 'hh'.
'hh'+'depresses'='hhdepresses'
'hhdepresses' with letters rearranged gives 'SHEPHERDESS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for shepherdess that I've seen before include "Tender of animals" , "Little Bo-Peep, for example" , "Bo Peep, perhaps" , "Country girl" , "She guards flock" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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