- "Let sleeping dogs lie!"
Episode: 3.1 (The Third Degree)
Airdate: October 9, 2006
Lumpy tries to catch a dog that goes crazy when it hears whistling.
"Doggone It" contains the following:
- A Day in the Limelight:
- For Whistle, the only other appearance he's in is "Chore Loser".note
- For Lumpy, the animal control officer trying to face off Whistle.
- Subverted with Pop and Cub. They only appear in the beginning of the episode and after that, they are never shown again.
- Ambiguous Situation: Since Lifty and Shifty both drove away from the pet store, were fighting over a dollar before the squid sprayed ink on their van, and had many puppies that were the same breed as Whistle, it is left debatable if they have either stolen all of the puppies from the pet store or got the dollar by selling Whistle to the pet store.
- Butt Biter: Whistle bites Giggles' butt off after he hears a bird tweeting.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- The squid that Lumpy tied to his van at the beginning breaks free and kills Lifty and Shifty.
- Lifty and Shifty are also seen driving off from the pet store at the very beginning of the episode before coming back later on in the episode fighting over one dollar as they get killed by the squid's ink blocking their van's view.
- Continuity Nod: This isn't the first time Pop and Cub dealt with a vicious dog.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- Giggles is skinned alive and mauled to death by Whistle.
- Disco Bear's intestines are torn out by Whistle and used as a dog leash.
- Lumpy is mauled to death by several dogs.
- Decoy Protagonist: Pop & Cub. Despite being the starring characters along with Lumpy, only show up for the beginning parts of the episode. However, they do play a Small Role, Big Impact. (See Below)
- Diabolical Dog Catcher: Averted. Lumpy is not at all malicious to animals, he's just doing his job.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Giant Squid. The Squid antagonizes Cuddles and his friends at the beginning of the episode, but once it's caught by Lumpy, Whistle takes The Squid's place as the main antagonist.
- Dog Walks You: A much darker example. When Whistle goes crazy, he starts pulling out Disco Bear's intestines and pulling him like a leash.
- Downer Ending: Lumpy fails to capture Whistle and gets mauled by dogs.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones / Cannot Kill Their Loved Ones: Sadly, Averted. Whistle doesn't have any exception on who he kills, not even his owners, Pop and Cub. (even Fliqpy doesn't kill the latter).
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: The little bird that chipred and accidentally triggered Whistle looks terrified when Whistle attacks Giggles.
- Exploding Closet: More like "Exploding van door". Lifty and Shifty have a bunch of puppies in their van that drop out of the door, making Lumpy lose Whistle.
- Foreshadowing: Just as Pop leaves his son's room to play with Whistle, he makes a whistling sound before witnessing Cub being tormented by the berserk pup. Take a guess on what happens to Whistle whenever he hears something that sounds like his namesake sound later in the episode.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lumpy is shown to be upset when he witnesses Lifty and Shifty's deaths.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode is at first an episode about Pop and Cub having a dog, until Whistle becomes vicious and is taken by Lumpy. The rest of the episode is about Lumpy trying to catch Whistle.
- In the Blood: Whatever breed of dog Whistle is, all of the other puppies react the exact same way to the sound of a whistle.
- iSophagus: Lumpy accidentally swallows the whistle, which causes a problem when it comes to Whistle the Dog.
- Killer Rabbit: Not thinking that this little puppy can do a lot of damage is a big mistake.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A rare example that isn't a Karmic Death. After Whistle is done with Cub, Pop becomes Whistle's next victim, which is fair since he's responsible for going berserk in the first place.
- Meaningful Name: Whistle's "rabid" state is triggered when hearing any whistle sounds.
- Mister Muffykins: If you see Whistle triggered, RUN!
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Lumpy loses Whistle inside a pile of puppies that look nearly identical to Whistle himself. When he blows the whistle expecting Whistle alone to hear the signal, all the other puppies go berserk too!
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Lumpy is an animal control officer.
- Noodle Incident: There is no explanation of how the Giant Squid got in the house.
- Papa Wolf: When Pop sees Whistle attacking Cub, Pop, in turn, attacks Whistle back and wins.
- Rewatch Bonus: Knowing that Whistle the dog gets triggered by the sound of whistles makes so much sense when you rewatch the other scenes where he becomes rabid.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Cub. He became Whistle's first victim, which shows the audience that Whistle will be a menace to ABSOLUTELY anyone.note
- Shout-Out:
- Whistle tearing Giggles' skin off of her buttocks is a parody of the Coppertone sunscreen logo.
- The way Lifty and Shifty's van has dozens of Whistle puppies is similar to 101 Dalmatians.note
- Small Role, Big Impact: Despite Pop and Cub being Decoy Protagonists, their actions of buying Whistle as a pet kickstarted the entire episode.
- Smart Ball: Lumpy is the only one to figure out why Whistle keeps going rabid.
- Spanner in the Works: Mime, he had no idea that blowing his whistle would make things worse for Whistle and everybody else.
- Stealth Pun: The title of this episode is a common phrase said when you realize a mistake you made but also references Whistle, while also meaning that Pop and Cub realized they made the huge mistake of getting Whistle in the first place.
- Stripped to the Bone: The only thing that is left of Lumpy in the ending was one of his severed antlers.
- Terrestrial Sea Life: A Giant Squid somehow got out of the ocean and ran amok.
- The Fake Cutie: Whistle seems nice at first until you make any whistling sounds.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Sniffles, Petunia, Toothy, Handy, Cub (possibly), Giggles, the Mole, Disco Bear, Mime, Lifty, Shifty, and Lumpy all die in this episode.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Despite dying in the end, Lumpy managed to take out a squid the size of a small house with just a mouse trap.
- Pop, despite being a Bumbling Dad, takes down Whistle after seeing what the latter did to Cub, and won against him. He is left with major injuries but still.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Cuddles, Pop, and maybe Cub survive this episode.
- Vocal Dissonance: Whistle is just a little puppy but has the voice of a full-grown dog. Justified as he's voiced by Ken Pontac's dog, who is full-grown.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: Poor Pop and Cub couldn't keep Whistle around.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Pop had not started whistling, or gotten another pet instead of Whistle, the episode would have been avoided as a whole.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Whether or not Cub survived Whistle's attack is unknown. Word of God states that there could be a chance that Cub did survive, given his Iron Butt-Monkey status and thanks to Pop.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode, Lumpy tries to find Whistle, the dog who's been piled by other puppies, by blowing a whistle. It all works well.. until all the other puppies go berserk too.
- Would Hurt a Child: Whistle made sure this was clear to Pop and Cub.
