The proverbial saying ‘don’t keep a dog and bark yourself’ is advice that you should not pay someone to do a task and then do it yourself.

The earliest citation of ‘don’t keep a dog and bark yourself’ that I can find is Brian Melbancke’s novel Philotimus: the Warre Betwixt Nature and Fortune, 1583:

“It is smal reason you should kepe a dog, and barke your selfe.”