History Main / MistakenForDog

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' once has baby Animal mistake a ''fully grown dinosaur'' for a puppy.

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[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Films -- Animation]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/{{Evolution}}'', [[{{Redshirt}} someone]] finds a "dog" which is actually one of the violently aggressive aliens. HilarityEnsues.
* ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': Like in the cartoons, to George, Shep the elephant is his "big, gray, peanut-loving poochie." [[AllAnimalsAreDogs And Shep seems to believe it too.]]

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[[folder: Live Action-TV]]

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* The urban myth of "The Mexican Pet" involves a woman taking her "dog" to the vet, only to be told that it's a diseased Mexican sewer rat.

-->"Well, afore I bobbed his tail and painted him yellow, he was an alligator."

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Inverted with Ren of ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow''; most people think he's some sort of rat, though he's really a chihuahua.
** Stimpy, however, gets passed off as a dog sometimes - when the two of them get jobs at the fire station, and at a dog show. Also, at the show, when Stimpy gets disqualified, their owner George Liquor enters as a dog, and wins!

* In ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', The Tasmanian Devil treats a turtle as a pet dog. Subverted, perhaps, as though rather dim, he knows it isn't really one, but as it was raised by a pack dogs it sure acts like one--which comes in handy, it turns out, when Bull and Axl come along looking to trap Taz, and Dog the Turtle attacks them. Played straight, though, when homeless, lonely Wendal Wolf pretends to be Dog, and Taz treats him like a real dog (even offering him dog food), [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor which offends him]].
* In a series of WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoons, Sylvester keeps mistaking the baby kangaroo for a giant mouse.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', Billy enters a werewolf (not just any werewolf, but an infected Irwin) in a dog show.
%% * ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' once had baby Animal mistake a FULLY GROWN DINOSAUR for a puppy.

** In "Lethal Weapons", Peter admits that for the first few years of her life, he thought Meg was a cat.
** In a ColdOpen where they visit their new neighbors [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDad the Smiths]], Peter mistakes [[TheGreys Roger]] for a dog.
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'', Dag and Norbert are adopted by a family that thinks they're dogs.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko tries to get Spunky out of the pound, only for the officials to mistake him for a dog and throw him into a pen with other dogs.
** Another episode had Rocko hypnotized into acting like a dog and ended up being 'adopted' by his neighbor, Mrs. Bighead who didn't recognize him.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} (1993)'':
** Mr Director would often refer to the Warner siblings as "puppy children". They were really generic cartoon characters with traits from several different animals.

** In the short, "Devil Doggie" from the episode, "The Wheel O' Comedy", Elmyra Duff mistakes Dizzy Devil, a tasmanian devil, for a dog. When Dizzy agrees to be her pet for the day upon hearing the free food she'd give him, she treats him like a dog, which includes playing with a rubber dog toy, feeding him from a dog bowl, and even grooming him to look like a poodle.
** In the short, "K-9 Kitty" from the episode, "Furrball Follies", Furrball is looking for a new home, and a near-blind couple, who absolutely [[FantasticRacism hate cats]], mistake him for a dog. Furrball takes advantage of this by acting like a dog. When the couple get two new pairs of glasses at the end of the short, they find out he is a cat and kick him out.

** In "The Puppy", Richard mistakes the vicious turtle he buys from a dodgy van for a puppy.
-->'''Richard''': It's a labradoodle.\\
'''Turtle''': ''*hisses*''\\
'''Richard''': It's a labraturtle.
** In "The Burden", Principal Brown asks Gumball and Darwin to look after the school hamster, but Brown accidentally gives them a lump of his hair instead. None of them notice until the next day.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In the episode "Kevin Party", Kevin mistakes Lion for a dog (he's also apparently allergic to dogs, yet does nothing about it).

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'':

* A similar Polish urban legend has the "dog" [[BazaarOfTheBizarre bought from "a Russky" on a bazaar]] turn out to be a baby bear.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors: One of the [[BlandNameProduct MyBook]]-thread you can read was from a poster that posted a picture of a large stray cat they had found around their garbage can and asked if someone had lost it. The poster was quickly informed that it was actually a mountain lion cub that should absolutely not be interacted with. The poster then sheepishly asked what one should do if it "happened" to be on their bed.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors: One of the [[BlandNameProduct MyBook]]-thread you can read was from a poster that posted a picture of a large cat they had found in their garbage can and asked if someone had lost it. The poster was quickly informed that it was actually a mountain lion cub that should absolutely not be interacted with. The poster then sheepishly asked what one should do if it "happened" to be on their bed.

* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors: One of the [[BlandNameProduct MyBook]]-thread you can read was a picture of a cat they had found in their garbage can and if someone had lost it. The poster was quickly informed that it was actually a mountain lion cub that should absolutely not be interacted with. The poster then sheepishly asked what one should do if it "happened" to be on their bed.

* ''VideGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors: One of the [[BlandNameProduct MyBook]]-thread you can read was a picture of a cat they had found in their garbage can and if someone had lost it. The poster was quickly informed that it was actually a mountain lion cub that should absolutely not be interacted with. The poster then sheepishly asked what one should do if it "happened" to be on their bed.

[[folder: Film]]

* In ''Film/{{Evolution}}'', [[{{Redshirt}} someone]] finds a "dog" which is actually one of the violently aggressive aliens. HilarityEnsues.
* ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'': Like in the cartoons, to George, Shep the elephant is his "big, gray, peanut-loving poochie." [[AllAnimalsAreDogs And Shep seems to believe it too.]]
* In ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'', when Brenda has [[BlindWithoutEm lost her glasses]] and is stuck in the bus station, she sees what she thinks is a kitten, picks it up... and it turns out to be a jumbo-sized sewer rat.

* Played completely and horrifyingly straight in ''Film/TheThing1982'', where the characters bring a malamute home to their base camp and it turns out to be an alien bent on assimilating all life on Earth.

* "Sam's New Pet", a story from ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', follows the "Mexican Pet" urban legend. Sam's parents go to Mexico for a vacation and end up adopting a "Mexican Hairless dog" they find there as a pet. When Sam sees it foaming at the mouth one day, the family takes it to the vet, where they discover the truth: it's not a dog at all, but a rabid sewer rat. What makes this stand out from the other examples is the [[ https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark/images/5/53/Sams_new_pet.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20181007142719 illustration]], which makes it look less like a rat and more like a [[HumanoidAbomination feral toddler with a rat's tail]].

The animal's true identity could be anything from an alien lifeform to a Mexican sewer rat. The most common variant involves the owner mistaking it for a [[AllAnimalsAreDogs dog]], but other pet variants are possible.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'', Bugs mistakes the Tasmanian Devil for a dog.

* On an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter admits that for the first few years of her life, he thought Meg was a cat.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' once had baby Animal mistake a FULLY GROWN DINOSAUR for a puppy.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', Billy enters a werewolf in a dog show.

* ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'' famous "Duck Sketch" in which one of the protagonists has been conned into buying a duck, convinced it's an Albanian racing pigeon.

* Mr Director on ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' would often refer to the Warner siblings as "puppy children". They were really generic cartoon characters with traits from several different animals.

* Experiment 626 (Stitch) of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' -- a genetically engineered creature from an alien planet -- is an interesting case. He's mistaken for a dog by the owner of an animal shelter, who really ought to know better. (She also assumes he's dead -- having been run over by a semitrailer -- and yet puts him in one of the cells anyway.) And that was ''before'' he [[RetractableAppendages retracted his antennae, back spines, and second pair of arms]]. Once he has, Lilo is perfectly willing to believe he's a dog. Nani, David, and Mertle's GirlPosse are far more skeptical.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Anime/WolfsRain'', with Quent and Blue's relationship. Quent has a pathological hatred of the wolves (who are fully sentient and capable of speech in the setting), and firmly believes that his hunting animal companion Blue is a particularly large wolf-hound. In reality, she is a pure-blooded wolf, but even she believes herself to be a dog and is steadfastly loyal to Quent -- at least neither of them can deny the truth anymore, and they part ways despite considerable anguish on both sides.