Curious, as fucké le chien get only 30 hits on Google:
http://www.google.ie/search?q="fucké+le+chien"&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&start=20&sa=N
I presume that French must have picked up fucké from English? Not a word I’d expect to be used in French for the sex act.
It is not used for the sex act. It usually means “broken, not working” like Les brakes sont fuckés (The brakes are not working). Welcome to the wonderful world of Québec slang or joual like we call it/
Doesn’t surprise me. In English, if I said “the brakes on my car are fucked”, any native speaker would understand that meant “my brakes are malfunctioning.”
Ah? Here, what I heard was definitely “fourrer le chien”; I’ve never heard “fucker le chien”. That’s interesting. Either it’s an actual difference between the French spoken here and the one spoken in Montreal, or both are used by people in our cities but we just didn’t hear it.
On the other hand, I often hear “fucké” to refer to something that’s broken. No, here it has no sexual connotation. I guess that’s why, while it is a slang word, it isn’t considered anywhere near as offensive as it is in the US.
Unless French has changed a lot from what I learned, terms with sexual connotations aren’t that offensive in French. The French swear differently.
if you try to swear using sexual imagery in french, you might hear in reply something like <<… crisse de con! tabernak, osti!>>
I’ve heard it used in the Louisiana oilfields, meaning to goof off instead of working. Didn’t know it was used up north.
Hmm, the first time I ever heard the expression (about 25 years ago) was from the French boss of company I was working for at the time.
And I’ve heard it used quite a bit in the oil industry, like wheelie has.
There seems to be a difference in meaning depending on the specific phrase. “Screw the pooch” seems to mean “make a major mistake”. “Fuck the dog” seems to mean “sit around doing nothing”.
Yes, we Quebecers still use the famous “church words” to swear, even though we’re not very religious anymore. The French have other swears, but right now I’m not sure which ones, but I think that, indeed, as rfgdxm said, they’re less sexually-oriented than American swears. You may have a “whore” or so but that’s about it.
In Calgary where I live, I hear that all the time. fuck the dog, pump the pooch or what ever. I think it is something that almost all Canadians have heard at one time or another 
In northern Minnesota (near the Canadian border, by the way), you hear it all the time. That and “dog screwing”.
In my area (western Pennsylvania) screw the pooch means to make a major error. The only time I’ve heard “fuck the dog” has been in reference to bestiality. I once heard a guy from Oklahoma say he was “going to see a man about a dog”. He meant he was going to go urinate. None of us had ever heard the phrase, plus we were all veterinarians. We were puzzled. 
I grew up in Southern Ontario and now live in Ottawa. I am very familiar with this term, and so is everyone else I’ve ever worked with. I thought it was universal!
Hmmm… I’ve always heard “going to see a man about a horse” as a reference to the need to pee.
In my experience, saying “I have to go see a man about a dog” is just a funny way of excusing yourself to leave. It is not specific to leaving for any particular purpose (such as going to urinate) as far as I have seen.
Just expanding on the geographical limits of the phrase, I hear it fairly often here in SE Wisconsin.
pinkfreud’s answer is a good one.
Worked for a Rail Road Co. in Chicago for a summer in the early 80’s. “Fuck the Dog” referred to getting out of sight to either goof around or take a nap, on company time.
Heard it a million times over the years here in Indiana. Always to mean goofing off or “milking a gravy job” (taking maximum advantage of an easy or otherwise desireable task).
Do you have the Wolfe quote handy? I’d question whether it was a mere substitution, because the two terms have come to mean different things. Screwing the pooch means making a very bad mistake, as opposed to the goofing-off sense of fucking the dog.
I grew up down the street from there, and was familiar with the term.