Why do we say "If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas"?

Meaning:

If you associate with disreputable characters your own reputation will inevitably be harmed.

Background:

This proverb is first recorded in English in James Sanford's Garden of Pleasure (1573): He that goeth to bedde wyth Dogges, aryseth with fleas.

It seems that little is known of Sanford (sometimes recorded as Sandford) other than that he was an English author and translator of various Latin texts. The Latin variant is, "qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent" (they who lie with dogs will rise with fleas).

Sanford dedicated Garden of Pleasure's to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a long-time favorite of Elizabeth I. According to its opening pages, it "contayninge most pleasante tales, worthy deeds and witty sayings of noble princes [et] learned philosophers, moralized. No lesse delectable, than profitable. Done out of Italian into English..."

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