History Main / ShooTheDog

* [[TheFoxAndTheHound "Goodbye may seem forever.]] [[TearJerker Farewell is like the end..."]]

* Done in the Disney film ''{{The Fox and the Hound}}'' with the Widow Tweed sending out her pet fox into the wilderness to stop him from being hunted by his best friend's owner.

-->-- '''Widow Tweed''', ''TheFoxAndTheHound''

** This is mainly because there is no reason to release a pokémon in the game unless you bottlenecked on your limit and really have no more use for them. Most people who release pokémon are releasing the ones that they bred (at level 5 or 1 depending upon which generation you are breeding) and waiting for the one that they really want. In the pokémon world, it would be like throwing helpless pokémon out onto the street to be killed by wild pokémon.

-> ''"Go away, Trumpy! I hate you!"''
-->-- '''Tommy''', ''PodPeople''

-> ''"But in my heart's a memory, and there, you'll always be."''
-->-- '''Widow Tweed''', ''TheFoxAndTheHound''

You know I really love you, don't you [[TropeyTheWonderDog Tropey]]? We've had some [[ABoyAndHisX real good adventures together]], but...

[[PuppyDogEyes Don't look at me like that, Tropey!]] You know [[DeathByNewberyMedal what'll happen if we keep you]]!
Go on, get out of here! It's for your own good, dang it! Shoo! I gotta leave you behind, and there ain't two ways about it! Go!

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* Preposterously common throughout the {{Pokemon}} franchise, besides the videogames.
** This is mainly because there is no reason to release a pokemon in the game unless you bottlenecked on your limit and really have no more use for them. Most people who release pokemon are releasing the ones that they bred (at level 5 or 1 depending upon which generation you are breeding) and waiting for the one that they really want. In the pokemon world, it would be like throwing helpless pokemon out onto the street to be killed by wild pokemon.

* A possible example occurs in ''{{Kanon}}'' where Yuuichi remembers caring for (and becoming quite attached to) a fox that had broken its leg, but once healed he has to take it back in the wild because he has to leave town. Needless to say, both parties are quite distraught. [[spoiler: The fox finds Yuuichi upon his return as the human girl, Makoto. Her feeling of loss at their parting is why she is so beset by irrational anger at him.]]

* Ace attempts to do this for Luffy in ''OnePiece'' [[spoiler: as Luffy plunges headfirst into the battle at Marineford and is attacked on all sides by the [[PsychosForHire Seven Warlords of the Sea]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Marine officers]] in an attempt to [[RescueArc rescue Ace from his execution]]. Ace shouts for Luffy to go away, stating that they have their own crews and Luffy is under no obligation to rescue him. He even states that it would be "humiliating" to be saved by a "weakling" like Luffy, all the while silently begging for Luffy not to involve himself in Ace's mistake. [[IdiotHero Luffy]] of course just ignores this and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming shouts that he's Ace's little brother and promises to save Ace even if it killed him]]. Awww!]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Film]]

* {{Inverted}} in ''TheJerk'', where the dog very clearly wants to leave, but poor Navin is too overcome with emotion to let him go.

* Happens in ''{{Equilibrium}}'', but the goddamn dog refuses to leave, leading directly to the heroes first act against the government.
** And in that act, we learn that [[BadAss NOBODY fucks with Christian Bale when there's a puppy involved]].

* In a cruel twist of SparedByTheAdaptation, in the beginning of HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows movie, Harry lets Hedwig fly away. She comes back later when there are Death Eaters chasing after the rescue crew and takes a blow for Harry.

[[folder: Literature]]
* In ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', a nine-year-old girl parts ways with a BigBadassWolf. She has to throw rocks to make it stop following her. [[spoiler:She still becomes the direwolf when she dreams, though.]]

* In ''TheYearling'' our protagonist has to do this to his pet deer to save its life after it's eaten a corn crop. Unfortunately, the deer in question comes back and eats another corn crop, so the kid finally has to [[ShootTheDog shoot the deer,]] which he insists on doing himself.
* Richard and Kahlan from ''TheSwordOfTruth'' series when Kahlan tells him she doesn't love him in order to save his life by forcing him to leave with a priestess of the light, Verna. Later on, Richard breaks out of his depression when he does the same thing to his pet Gratch and realizes Kahlan was doing the whole thing for Richard's sake.
* Sam does this to Bill the pony in TheLordOfTheRings when the Fellowship has to go through the Mines of Moria.

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

** Which promptly became a RunningGag
* Parodied in an episode of ''[[ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'' when Jack does this Frank to prevent him from becoming a lawyer (and subsequently killed by the Mafia). Notable for being a direct reference to ''HarryAndTheHendersons''.

* Subverted on an episode of {{Xena}}. When times are getting serious, she rather viciously shoos off Joxer, the useless tagalong. He thinks it's a joke at first until she gets violent to punctuate her point, claiming that he would [[TheLoad just slow them down.]] We as the audience might likely assume she's performing this trope to protect him from the coming confrontation, but actually [[spoiler: she's trying to convince someone ''else'' that she's getting rid of him for real, so he can carry out a mission for her without being suspected.]]

[[folder: Music]]
* The Ingrid Michaelson song "A Bird's Song," [[YourMileageMayVary though it could be interpreted otherwise.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* In the first {{Halo}} game some were doing this. A few were doing this with the Marines, but many were doing it with their armless Flood Buddies. Yes, Flood.
* Done in {{Fallout}} 3, when telling Dogmeat to leave your party.
** Made even more heartwrenching near the end of the game should you choose to activate the purifier yourself. Before you enter and seal your final fate, if he is with you, you can tell him goodbye one last time before entering the room. The whimper that Dogmeat does when you tell him this only makes you feel worse.

* The good ending to ''Rule of Rose'' is either this or ShootTheDog, depending on FridgeLogic. Over the course of the game, it's revealed the player's best friend is in fact [[spoiler: the BigBad]], having [[spoiler: arranged the deaths of every other character]] because she [[spoiler:felt abandoned]] because the player was [[spoiler:spending more time with their new pet dog than with her.]] The epilogue is a flashback/dream sequence/weird mystical time travel deal where the player is sent back before the whole thing began, and must chain the dog inside a shed and leave it there so that the whole tragedy doesn't start all over again. FridgeLogic sets in when you realize you're essentially leaving the poor dog (who's spent the entire game saving your life!) there to starve to death.

* The Boss does this to Naked Snake for all of ''MetalGearSolid 3'' (complete with him trying to follow her like a lost puppy). Breaks his arm, stomps on his foot with her (randomly there) horse and shoots him in the leg...She even chucks him off a bridge. However this is all because if she DIDN'T chuck him off the bridge, break his arm, etc etc he would have surely been killed by Volgin whereas he has a slim chance to survive from the fall into the river/insert other circumstances here. This is only made worse when the player and Snake find out that [[spoiler: she was the good guy all along and presumably wanted to protect you from being hurt/test you by hurting you. ]]. Though YMMV I suppose.

* ''DragonQuestVII'' has this potentially occur in Loomin with Sieble and his pet larval Hellworm, Chibi. The rest of the town is getting antsy about his exotic taste in pets, particularly since [[DoomMagnet they've already had some nasty luck recently]]; if you warn him about this, he tries to release Chibi into the wild and shoo him away. Alternately, you can [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential sneak into his house and kill Chibi for the villagers]], but [[WhatTheHellHero why would you do that? Seriously]]. [[spoiler: Unless you ''want'' the villagers to suffer karmic backlash and Sieble end up as the SoleSurvivor...]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* ''{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' had to give up his seahorse, Mystery, who seemed rather apathetic about the whole thing.

*** Note that while he ''is'' prepared to kill Dr. Venture, he's noticeably relieved when he doesn't have to, and tries to get them to safety soon afterword despite the termination of his mission. Although [[spoiler: his nonchalance about Hank and Dean's repeated deaths because of the existence of their clones]] is misleading, it's quite clear that he does care about the Venture family.
* Done in the Disney film ''TheFoxAndTheHound'' with the Widow Tweed sending out her pet fox into the wilderness to stop him from being hunted by his best friend's owner.
* BatmanBeyond - Using his camouflage gear, Terry (aka Batman) goes into a station monitered by laser shooting cameras. He ends up compromising his position when he tries to shoo a curious cat away from the building. Also reinforces his position as a hero.
* In ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', the [[AmazonBrigade Kyoshi Warriors]] find [[HorseOfADifferentColor Appa]] injured in the woods after he's separated from Aang and nurse him back to health... and then [[spoiler:[[TheDragon Azula]] finds ''them'', forcing Suki to shoo away Appa with a torch.]]
** Avatar Roku also tried to shoo his dragon Fang away from an erupting volcano, [[spoiler: but the dragon instead curled up around his beloved master and died with him.]]

* Ace attempts to do this for Luffy in ''OnePiece'' [[spoiler: as Luffy plunges headfirst into the battle at Marineford and is attacked on all sides by the [[PsychosForHire Shichibukai]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Marine officers]] in an attempt to [[RescueArc rescue Ace from his execution]]. Ace shouts for Luffy to go away, stating that they have their own crews and Luffy is under no obligation to rescue him. He even states that it would be "humiliating" to be saved by a "weakling" like Luffy, all the while silently begging for Luffy not to involve himself in Ace's mistake. [[IdiotHero Luffy]] of course just ignores this and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming shouts that he's Ace's little brother and promises to save Ace even if it killed him]]. Awww!]]

* [[TheFoxAndTheHound "Goodbye may seem forever.]] [[TearJerker Farewell is like the end.."]]

* Happens in ''OfMiceAndMen'', when [[spoiler:Lennie has just murdered Curley's wife, and George shoots him to save him from the angry mob which would have pretty much tortured him.]]

* ''SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' has a minor one. During Dayu/Tayu's existensial crisis, she carries around with her one of the little baby puffball demon things from the Sanzu River. [[spoiler:Upon her death,]] she tosses it aside, telling it to flee. The furball simply sits there repeatedly calling her name to the discarded kimono until Dokoku steps on it.

<<|TropeyTheWonderDog|>>

* From ''{{Okami}}'', ExpositionFairy and general inch-high annoyance, Issun, leaves Amaterasu just before the final dungeon. Since ''you're'' the dog, you're not amused.

** Really? I just beat them to death and laugh.

* Happens in '''OfMiceandMen''', when [[spoiler:Lennie has just murdered Curley's wife, and George shoots him to save him from the angry mob which would have pretty much tortured him.]]

* Unit 1 of the CambridgeLatinCourse is set in Pompeii, so [[RocksFallEveryoneDies it could only have ended one way]]. As the main character, Caecilius, lies trapped under a fallen wall, he convinces his slave Clemens to escape... but Cerberus, the family dog, won't budge. [[TearJerker He watches over his master till the end.]]

* Unit 1 of the Cambridge Latin Course is set in Pompeii, so [[RocksFallEveryoneDies it could only have ended one way]]. As the main character, Caecilius, lies trapped under a fallen wall, he convinces his slave Clemens to escape... but Cerberus, the family dog, won't budge. [[TearJerker He watches over his master till the end.]]