“Old Dog Tray” was entered for copyright deposit on August 10, 1853, by Firth, Pond & Co.

A guitar arrangement of the song was submitted for copyright deposit on September 28, 1854, also by Firth, Pond & Co.

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family:

In August, 1853, “Old Dog Tray,” a song Stephen had finished shortly before leaving Allegheny, was published. This is a song that has touched the hearts of everyone who ever loved a faithful dog. The beautiful setter that inspired Stephen was owned by Matthew I. Stewart, a lawyer friend who lived on the West Common. Stephen at first had not thought much of the song. He started it one evening at the home of Mrs. Julia Mitchell, but, losing interest, put it away in a table drawer and forgot about it. But Julia brought the song out for him the next time he came to the house, and told him she thought it well worth finishing. Stephen set to work on it, and when she put her head in the parlor door a while later (as Mrs. Jessie Rose, Stephen’s granddaughter, tells us) Stephen’s eyes were shining with enthusiasm as he played it over and over, and she knew that “Old Dog Tray” had come to stay.

Later she writes:

Other songs that Stephen published in 1853 were “Old Memories” and “Little Ella,” neither of which became so popular as “Old Dog Tray.” It is evident that most of his hard work that fall was put on the Social Orchestra.

Regarding financial arrangements with Edwin P. Christy, Morneweck writes:

At this time, Stephen had an agreement with E. P. Christy to allow Christy the privilege of singing Stephen’s songs prior to publication. For the privilege of first singing “Oh! Boys, Carry Me ’Long,” “Massa’s in de Cold Ground,” “Old Dog Tray,” and “Ellen Bayne,” Christy paid Stephen ten dollars for each song; this also included the right to have printed on the cover page “As sung by E. P. Christy,” or “Christy’s Minstrels.”

Regarding relinquising his future rights, Morneweck writes:

Although Stephen was receiving a fair return on his songs, he had not been living within his means, and in the winter of 1857, found himself overdrawn at his publishers and with several pressing debts. He raised the money by selling out to Firth, Pond & Company, for the sum of $1872.28, all his future rights in the songs Firth, Pond had already published. Stephen also sold out completely his rights in sixteen songs published by F. D. Benteen (including “De Camptown Races”) for $200. With this two thousand and some odd dollars, Stephen cleared up his debts and had money in the bank, but when we realize that “Old Folks at Home,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Massa’s in de Cold Ground,” “Old Dog Tray,” “Nelly Bly,” and “Hard Times Come Again No More” were amongst the songs relinquished, we can agree they were the dearest debts Stephen ever paid.

Regarding sales, Morneweck writes:

Of his later pieces, there have been sold eighty thousand copies of “My Old Kentucky Home,” seventy thousand of “Old Dog Tray” and about the same number of “Massa’s in the cold, cold Ground.”