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Precious Puppy
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Is it two-ply? Is it durable? Is it absorbent? Who cares? It's got cute widdle puppies!

"Throw puppies at a problem and the problem may not disappear, but who cares? There will be puppies!"
Ōkamiden review, Official Nintendo Magazine

A work is not about dogs, but throws them in anyway.

The reason is usually that dogs are cool, and puppies are also cute. You just want to love them, pet them, just cuddle up to them, and let them lick the frown off your face. For this reason, puppies and other forms of dogs are likely to show up in fiction, just because they make everything better. Heck, there's a reason Pet the Dog and Kick the Dog have "dog" in the name, since doing nice or bad things to them sets such a strong tone for the character doing those.

A common schtick for guys to attract girls in fiction on TV: borrow or rent a puppy so the girls will come coo over it and admire the guy for his sensitivity.

Compare Cute Kitten, Sweet Seal, Cunning Like a Fox, Fun Size, Canis Major, Big Friendly Dog, Robot Dog, Canine Companion, and note that one person's precious little pup is another's Mister Muffykins. If the puppies distract from another situation, then a Cuteness Proximity situation has occurred.


Gratuitous Use Of Canines In Shows:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Shown above: The puppy for Andrex toilet tissue in the UK. Sold in the U.S. as Kleenex Cottonelle.
  • 21st Century Insurance has a commercial where puppies are released from a crate and decide which insurance company is better. Because "puppies don't lie."
  • Marketing research has shown that putting a puppy or a baby into an advertisement, no matter how arbitrarily, boosts sales. Hence the toilet paper.
  • Take a look at the ads on this very page. It's pretty likely that they have adorable puppies. Looks like AdBot has a softer side.
  • Mexican-based phone company Telmex ran many television ads in Mexico, Peru and Colombia featuring a talking Jack Russel Terrier called Otto. The dog is so popular that even people who dislike Telmex wind up liking the dog.
  • In a Vonage commercial about not having to bundle your phone, TV, and internet together, the creepy neighbors who are trying to get the new people to bundle offer a puppy. But they won't give him up alone. He's part of the bundle.
  • There's an advert for digestive biscuits featuring puppies. here.
  • Subaru has an ad campaign purporting its cars to be "Dog Tested. Dog Approved."
    • The Katy, TX Subaru dealership sponsors a local animal shelter, and fill their ads with cute baby animals so they can shill the animal shelter and their vehicles at the same time.
  • Budweiser made an anti-drunk driving PSA featuring a man and his beloved dog. The message is emphasized by the dog waiting all night for his owner to return after he leaves for a beer party, not knowing what might happen to him. They get a happy ending when the owner returns safely, having been responsible while drinking.
  • Daniel Craig appeared in a Omaze charity ad (with an Aston Martin as prize, of course) accompanied by a bunch of Golden Retriever puppies.
  • A few brands like Uber Eats started making video adds on platforms like YouTube featuring a playful puppy, since they're less likely to be skipped by viewers.

    Anime and Manga 

    Arts 
  • A cute lapdog looks out at the audience from the bottom center of The Arnolfini Portrait. It serves as another indicator of the couple's wealth.
    Asian Animation 
  • In the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf season Mighty Little Defenders, Wolffy is transformed into a cute puppy and he tries to get back to his normal state.

    Comic Books 
  • In ElfQuest, Ember gets her first bond wolf, Choplicker, who is still a cub and he is lupine cuteness personified.
  • Henchmen: After his first job with the Headpin of Crime, Gary buys his daughter Samantha a puppy. She decides to name it Harry (despite the fact the puppy is a female) because it has so much fur.
  • In Injustice 2, Batman's pet Ace the Bat-Hound is re-imagined as an little puppy orphaned after his owners were killed by superheroes. Sadly, he is killed in cold-blood by Athanasia al Ghul.
  • The Mall (2018): Lena discovers there's a bunch of puppies for sale at the pet store she inherited from her father, much to her joy.
  • In the first issue of Nightwing (Infinite Frontier), Dick rescues a three-legged puppy from a group of gang members ready to shoot the poor thing. Barbara convinces him to keep it since she knows he wants to and, though Audience Participation, names her "Haley".

    Comic Strips 
  • Cute dogs show up throughout The Fortunes of Flossie, and protagonist Flossie even receives multiple puppies throughout the run:
    • In the introductory December 12th, 1926 strip, Flossie is depicted holding a Pekinese dog on her lap. The Pekinese reappears in the April 24th, 1927 strip (though it never receives a name or mention in the text captions).
    • In the January 9th, 1927 strip, Flossie's champion collie dog "Nell" unexpectedly gives birth to seven adorable puppies.
    • In the March 20th, 1927 strip, Flossie's neighbor Miss Jones gifts her a lovable puppy.
  • In Peanuts, Snoopy is the personification of this.
  • In Rose is Rose, Mimi stares into a window with a designer dress — because the mannequin is shown walking a puppy.

    Fan Works 
  • The scene when Hai, a black Wolf Hound, is introduced as a gift for Neo in The Matrix fanfic Bringing Me To Life, Hai is the runt making him even more of a precious puppy.
  • In My Huntsman Academia, Team MNVW ends up adopting a puppy Izuku found abandoned in a box and names her Lulu. She's a happy, playful pup who elicits Cuteness Overload from everyone around her.
  • Garo from Their Bond is usually seen as adorable by those who don't dislike him for being part-Wolfo. Zelda, Midna, and Navi are all smitten by the pup.
  • Silverstream briefly looks after one of these in The Young Six and she gives him the name Mr. Yappy McScrufferson.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Dune (1984) gave Paul a dog as a pet, despite no mention of one in the book.
  • The adorable puppy that just appears in one scene in The Third Man.
  • Milo from The Mask.
  • In Krull, Inept Mage Ergo off-handedly mentions wishes. Titch, a boy coming along with them, mentions he always wanted a puppy. Later on, Ergo wanders away from the rest for a while, turning himself into a puppy and running along to Titch, remaining that way for a few scenes to make him happy. B'aww.
  • In Bridesmaids, puppies are given out as bridal shower favors.
  • In Scanners II: The New Order, David and Alice are seen caring for a laboratory puppy, which they name Trooper. David gives it to Alice as a present and she's later seen with it in her apartment.
  • The Mechanic (2011). When Steve McKenna expresses interest in becoming a hitman, Arthur Bishop takes him to the animal shelter to adopt a puppy, then tells him to take the dog every hour to a coffee shop where his next target will be, a rival hitman with a liking for gay men with cute dogs.
  • The Shadow Conspiracy (1997) opens with a hitman killing a house full of people. One injured woman crawls past a basketful of puppies to get at a gun, but is shot by the killer, who wipes the blood off his silencer on one of them.
  • Deconstructed in Lolita (1997). While in a hotel lobby Dolores goes over to play with a cute long-eared dog... which is being held on a leash by pedophile Quilty. Some close-ups of his fingers twitching the leash like someone carefully reeling in a fish give a clear hint at what his purpose is in owning the dog.
  • Black comedy example in the bloodthirsty Japanese film Hard Revenge, Milly: a villain gets chopped up into steak cubes. An adorable little dog then appears out of nowhere and starts to eat the meat.
  • An incredible scene in 1925 documentary Grass, about a nomadic Iranian tribe. A puppy hops out of a camel's saddlebag. The camel then nuzzles the puppy.
  • Kick-Ass. Big Daddy is shocked when his little girl asks for a cute fluffy puppy for her twelfth birthday, until Mindy reassures her father that she's just fucking with him — she wants a balisong, of course. Her father's so pleased, he gives her two of them.
  • John Wick has a beloved puppy named Daisy, who is the last gift given to him by his deceased wife. When Iosef murders her just to spite John while trying to steal his car, it proves to be the biggest mistake Iosef could have possibly made.
  • In Sudden Impact, Harry Callahan's friend and fellow cop Horace delivers an Ugly Cute bulldog to Harry (probably as a way of breaking his balls a little; the dog seems to serve no purpose plotwise except to give Mick a Kick the Dog moment later in the movie).
  • In The Majestic, a Running Gag involves a bunch of executives at the studio Peter Appleton works and how they keep trying to shove scenes with dogs in films that don't need them at all (up to and including war dramas) purely for the sake of Rule of Cute.
  • Savannah Smiles: While buying ice cream for Savannah in one scene, the vendor offers Alvie a free puppy, which he gives to a delighted Savannah, who is with the puppy for most of the rest of the movie.

    Literature 
  • Biscuit, the little yellow puppy, a series of books by Alyssa Satin Cappucilli.
  • The Clifford the Big Red Dog Spinoff Babies series, Clifford's Puppy Days, which is basically based on the spinoff books series (yes, the books came first).
  • In The Death Gate Cycle, the hero gets a dog as a pet out of nowhere. The dog is actually a manifest part of his consciousness, but the fact that it became a dog fits this trope.
  • Harry spends the entirety of one of the Dresden Files novels carrying a puppy around in his coat pocket. In subsequent books said puppy grows up into a Big, Friendly Heroic Dog, but he doesn't really have much impact on the plot in that book aside from causing random female characters to suffer from Cuteness Proximity. But who cares? Harry's carrying a puppy in the pocket of his bulletproof black leather duster, which is just so damn cute it almost ceases to be hilarious.
  • Spot the Dog, a little yellow dog with a brown spot, which was created in 1980 by author and illustrator Eric Hill.
  • Dean Koontz is a big fan of dogs and frequently includes them in his works, sometimes even as major characters.
  • Discussed in Making Money; the dog, Mr. Fusspot, actually is a major part of the plot but his ability to cheer everyone up with his Ugly Cute face and silliness is a bonus. Adora Belle mentions that depressed people should watch him trying to eat a pudding. (While not exactly depressed, Adora is The Stoic, so something making her laugh has to be funny.)
  • Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key: Joey Pigza gets a dog at the end of the story.
  • Rick Brant: The Brant family's puppy Dismal is a bright and adorable dog who shows even fewer signs of aging than the human characters.
  • Illustrator Hans Wilhelm has a series of books featuring dogs. While the most famous of his dog books are the highly religious Waldo titles, he also writes the secular Noodles the Dog series.

    Puppets 
  • The 2005 Canadian live-action edutainment children's series Mustard Pancakes starring country singer Courtney Campbell, is focused on three friendly talking dogs (Oogleberry, Tina, and Mo) and a housecat named "Mr. D". The series focuses on teaching kids life lessons with use of country music in the mix. Tina the dog is the cutest character in the series due to her cheerful, innocent, and playful manner.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks finds an abandoned puppy in "Here is Your Past".
  • The Puppy Bowl is all about using this trope to escape the No-Hoper Repeat viewership slump. Notably, it was originally intended as a cheap throwaway slot-filler, but the puppies were just too precious and it ended up being one of Animal Planets highest rated shows/events.
  • Conan saw the drawing power of Puppy Bowl and for a week featured "Puppy Conan" - a miniature of the stage set with puppies dressed as host and co-host.
    • During his brief The Tonight Show tenure, he had a recurring bit called "Puppies Dressed As ______". Examples included "Cats", "Frankenstein", and "Thanksgiving Dinner".
  • Cowboy Bebop (2021). In "Dog Star Swing", the Villain of the Week's family was left behind to die during the Homeworld Evacuation, while the rich evacuated their pets instead. So he kidnaps their dogs intending to kill them out of revenge, but can't go through with it on seeing their Puppy-Dog Eyes and realising the dogs are blameless for their owners sins. When Spike and Jet catch up with him, he's happily playing with the dogs instead.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Used in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" to illustrate Angelus's evil.
      Giles: Valentine's Day. Yes, um, Angel nails a puppy to the—
      [...]
      Buffy: I don't wanna know. I don't have a puppy. Skip it.
    • In "Doomed", Spike finds out he can fight demons even with the chip in his head, and urges Buffy's friends to join him in fighting.
      Let's annihilate them. For justice, and for... the safety of puppies, and Christmas, right?
  • In Top Gear (UK) where Hammond did an experiment regarding which was a better "girl magnet", a flashy sports car or a retriever puppy (named Killer). The puppy won by a mile. All who approached fell under the spell of the Cuteness Proximity and didn't even notice the car.
  • A hilarious episode of Dinosaurs had all TV shows getting dumbed down, resulting in one show called "Box Full Of Puppies."
    • In another episode, Earl is forced to run for office (it sort of makes sense), and at one point, he just says he loves puppies as part of a ploy to win votes (it works).
  • An episode of The Monkees features a cute, puppy-filled romp sequence to the group's silly song "Gonna Buy Me a Dog."
  • In an episode of MythBusters, Grant had to be extremely relaxed and happy for a test and one of the things that was given to him was a bunch of puppies (to his obvious delight).
  • On Mystery Science Theater 3000, the bigger and meaner the on-screen dog, the more likely Crow and/or Tom are to exclaim "Puppy!"
    • Meanwhile, genuinely cute dogs, especially cocker spaniels, are likely to elicit a delighted "Humphrey!" from Tom. Humphrey was the name of Kevin Murphy's dog at the time.
    • In the Werewolf (1996) episode, Bobo's attempt at making a werewolf ends in failure when he brings in a cocker spaniel instead of a wolf. He ends up cooing over the dog; this is expected since the dog is Kevin Murphy (Bobo)'s dog
  • On Classic Concentration, Marjorie Goodson-Cutt's chihuahua Pokey would often show up on display with her owner during prize discriptions, much to the amusement/annoyance of host Alex Trebeck.
  • The "Palate Cleanser" segment of Web Soup, which comes after the Nightmare Fuel/Nausea Fuel of "Things You Can't Un-See", is all about making things better for the traumatized viewer; not coincidentally quite a few of the cutesy web videos that have been featured there feature puppies being adorable.
  • In Community episode "Cooperative Calligraphy", has a puppy parade.
    Dean Pelton: Attention, students! The puppy parade is starting on the quad! Better come quick—with every passing moment, these puppies grow older and less deserving of our attention.
  • Retriever puppies were brought onto the set of A Bit of Fry and Laurie on two occasions. They both went like this:
    Fry/Laurie: We have one last, very special guest for you to meet and her/his name is Snipper/Dodger. (Enter puppy.)
    The entire studio audience: Ooaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
  • Downton Abbey: The entire household gathers around to coo at Tiaa, the labrador retriever puppy Violet gave Robert before heading to the Mediterranean. Even Robert, who has raised Stiff Upper Lip to an art form, immediately bursts into babytalk and declares that she's coming upstairs in spite of not being housebroken.
  • Star Trek: Voyager. In "The Q and the Grey", Q is trying to sweet-talk Captain Janeway into an Interspecies Romance. Janeway, who left her own dog back on Earth, is surprised and delighted to suddenly find a puppy dog in her quarters. She goes all gooey for a second before toughening up.
    Janeway: This isn't going to work, Q.
    Q: (materialising) How can you ignore that face? (Q gives Janeway his best Puppy-Dog Eyes)
    Mrs Q: What are you doing with that dog? (Q and Janeway look at the puppy) I'm not talking about the puppy!
  • An earlier Q episode on Star Trek: The Next Generation has a young female intern on the Enterprise regretting having left her puppy dog back on her home planet, saying "I with I could have a dozen of them." Cue Be Careful What You Wish For when she enters her new quarters and finds a dozen puppies which she vanishes with a panicked wave of the hands, our first sign that she's not what she appears to be.
  • Przygody Psa Cywila has an opening sequence full of adorable puppies climbing out of a basket - since it's a Heroic Pet Story, Cywil himself is one in the first episode.
  • The Daily Show: At the end of the first show following the 9/11 attacks, John Stewart brings out a live puppy to serve as the "Moment of Zen".
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
    • Holt has a pet corgi named Cheddar. He is adorable, and a lot of humor comes from the other characters treating him with the utmost seriousness, despite him looking like this. Highlights include Jake, nose-to-nose with Cheddar, very sternly telling him, "Do not blow this for us," and, in another episode, treating him like a fugitive criminal mastermind after he got out of the house.
      Jake: That's right... I'm onto you, you slippery little bastard!
      (Cut to Cheddar frolicking through the park, eating some ice cream, and generally acting like an adorable, carefree corgi.)
    • In one episode, Boyle's dog dies, and Rosa, in a misguided attempt to cheer him up, buys him an adorable golden retriever puppy. When he angrily points out that he can't just replace one dog with another, Rosa grumpily asks, "So do I just have a dog now?" However, after spending some time with the dog, she changes her tune, and admits she now fully understands why Boyle was grieving the loss of his pet so much.
      Rosa: I've only had Arlo for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.
  • America's Funniest Home Videos: If a baby/toddler doesn't win first prize, then a dog will. Every. Single. Episode.
  • Odd Squad:
    • The Season 2 episode "And Then They Were Puppies" involves every agent of Precinct 13579, including the Main 4, turned into puppies by the Puppy Master's Puppy Ray. Oprah gives a short speech to her agents about how they're still Odd Squad agents despite being dogs, but it falls flat because she and the others can't rein in their canine instincts. Eventually Ohlm, who is still a human, manages to stop the Puppy Master and retrieve the ray, but turns himself into a puppy instead of turning everyone else back into humans.
    • Frieda Fiver, a local villainess residing in town, owns a Boston terrier named Fido Fifty that loves to bark fifty times in one go (as per his name).
    • During the Good-Times Montage in "Villains In Need Are Villains Indeed", the Noisemaker gifts Jamie Jam and Mr. Lightning a puppy for Christmas. Of course, they fall in love with it.
    • Jeremy, a Loony Fan of Odd Squad who appears in the Season 3 episode of the same name, owns a bulldog named Rocket, who doesn't appear to listen to his owner's commands but is still adorable regardless.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Toys 
  • American Girls Collection had at one point a separate toy line for puppies belonging to the girls, with each set including a plush pupper and a storybook.
  • The Liv toy doll line has all the girls paired up with a puppy that learns tricks to match the interest of the girl it's paired with.
  • Leap Frog's Dan and Dot (particularly the Spinoff Babies variant of Dot), Scout and Violet, Buddy, Bella and the rest of the Puppy Pals, and now, Bailey.
  • Fisher-Price's Laugh-and-Learn Puppy and Sis.
  • Hallmark's Jingle, Bell and Nugget, among many, many other gift toys put out by the company.
  • And then there's Puppy in my Pocket, which appears to be miniature dog figures.
  • Sylvanian Families has various dog families, many of which includes puppies that are extremely cute and adorable.

    Video Games 
  • Animal Crossing: New Leaf's biggest Breakout Character is a puppy named Isabelle who works as your mayoral assistant. There's also her twin brother, Digby who works as the Happy Home Showcase.
    • Really, any of the dog villagers and NPCs fit into this as well, even Tom Nook himself.
  • In Ensemble Stars!, Subaru and Kouga both have pet dogs (named Daikichi and Leon respectively) who sometimes appear in cards and stories. Leon in particular serves a very literal source of Pet the Dog moments for Kouga, who is typically pricky and confrontational, but absolutely adores his cute doggo. As of a 2018 update, they (as well as one of Wataru's birds) can randomly appear on producer courses, granting medals and gems when that room is tapped.
  • Milla Basset from Freedom Planet certainly qualifies, as she is a cutie little puppy who got taken in from the wilderness by Lilac and Carol, and had been living with them ever since. Also has a Badass Adorable factor on that matter.
  • The first Kingdom Hearts game has this in a Gotta Catch 'Em All side quest: Pongo and Perdita's 99 puppies were scattered throughout the various worlds when their own world was destroyed, and it's up to Sora to get them all back home.
  • In the Live Powerful Pro Baseball Japanese sports series, a brown cute puppy named Gundar appears as a Series Mascot in menus and as a minor character in the story modes. The Power Pro-kun Pocket series still features him in menus, but after some installments, every dating sim scenario had its own unique dog.
  • In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, there's a cute ghost puppy known as Polterpup. Even though it causes a lot of problems for the player, it's only trying to play. At the end of the game, once the Dark Moon is restored, it seems regretful for its actions, and Luigi apparently adopts it.
  • Nintendogs is Precious Puppies: The Game.
  • Chibiterasu in Ōkamiden is the scion of the mighty goddess of the sun that slew the personification of evil in the original Ōkami. Also a wolf puppy. Even the other characters succumb to Cuteness Proximity.
  • The title character's family in Opoona have 8 puppies, which help in the tutorial, as well as needing to be located for a sidequest.
  • Pizza Vs. Skeletons: Some levels in the game have the pizza free a set number of puppies from cages, gather them onto its body, and bring them back to the doghouse.
  • Pokémon has Growlithe, Houndour, Poochyena, Zigzagoon, Riolu, Lillipup, Rockruff, Yamper, Fidough, Greavard, and Maschiff (and Snubbull or Furfrou, if you're a certain rich lady). Growlithe, Lillipup, Rockruff, Yamper and Fidough in particular all share the categorization of "Puppy Pokémon".
  • Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Wobble Bell's Flavor Text:
    It's a puppy, its cuteness makes your heart sing!
  • In the Spelunky remake, one can choose the damsel to be a pug instead of a woman or a man.
  • Subverted in Spyro the Dragon's Dark Passage subworld, where some of the enemies look like sweet, adorable puppies at first, but once the lights go out they turn into massive, frightening hell hounds. They're not as cute in the Reignited Trilogy version, looking more like bulldog-chihuahua hybrids.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, one of the little miniquests involves Colette attempting to name every stray dog in the game.
  • In The Sims 3, a Sim who uses the "Awwww" interaction on a puppy will receive the +10 moodlet "Puppies!" for one Sim hour. A dog that had just given birth to a litter of puppies will give herself and her family the +80 moodlet "New Puppies" for one Sim day. All the same things work with Cute Kittens, too.
  • Pom from Them's Fightin' Herds is a lamb who has small, adorable puppies to help her in fights.
  • Tomodachi Life has the Rent-A-Dog Coupon level-up gift, which allows the Mii possessing it to play with a puppy, whether by themselves or with friends.

    Web Animation 
  • Etra chan saw it!:
    • In one episode, Tsutsuji brings Azami and Yuzuriha over see her newborn puppies. That moment kicks off the plot of Azami wanting to know where babies come from.
    • Yuzuriha's golden retriever has three puppies. She keeps one for herself and gives another to Karin. She lets Akane adopt the third one, but she gives it back to Yuzuriha a year later when it gets too big.
    • Yuri as a puppy owned by Tachibana and she even retains her hairstyle in this form.
  • Help Hotline's Fru is a chunky dog with simple, Algebralien-like proportions in his design.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • The Nostalgia Chick shouts "Puppies!" as a Running Gag. She also has her own puppy who appears in review. In the show its named Mignion, and in real life it's named Kali.
  • The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam
  • The website www.sanger.dk, which is nothing but an endlessly-looping .gif of a pug puppy licking at the screen.
  • On YouTube, there's a video of high school kids performing "Give Us Your Money" from Avenue Q. When Nicky tries to think of something that he could get for Rod as a peace offering, he says "I know! I'll get him a puppy!" Guess the PTA wasn't crazy about Rod getting a boyfriend.
  • YouTube personality Tobuscus has a video clip series called "Cute Win Fail". Needless to say, the "Cute" segment (and occasionally "Win") has a disproportionately high number of dogs doing absurdly cute things, with babies and cats as the other favorites.
  • The Spoony One now has a spotted puppy named Oreo. She's energetic and often shows up in vlogs wanting to play.
  • This is why Francis, a grey French Poodle, is the "host" for the YouTube cooking show Cooking with Dog.
  • Popular Youtuber, Trevor Martin, got himself a Golden Retriever puppy on February 2015, since then it has frequently featured in his videos.
  • A quick look through Markiplier's channel and Facebook page tells us he is very much a dog person. Multiple vlogs have shown him playing with Chica, a Golden Retriever he adopted, or the dogs his mother and brother have.
  • The Twitter account Can You Pet the Dog?, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, exists to catalogue specific examples of this trope in Video Games - are you able to pet a dog that appears in a video game?
  • Horribly, horribly subverted in Welcome to Night Vale. In the middle of Year Four, we have the first appearance of (former) Intern Maureen's beagle puppy, who Cecil gushes about when she comes in with him to the station one day. As the puppy continue to appear, it became clear that there was something up with him. And then in Past Time, a viewer writes to Cecil saying that they saw the puppy and was unable to stop feeling ill since; even Cecil starts to feel a little sick when he sees the puppy at the end of the episode. The Faceless Old Woman in The April Monologues says that the puppy was something that Chad had summoned, and that she herself is terrified of him. Oh, and he is probably Satan.
  • Zero Punctuation: Yahtzee is marginally more favorable to games that prominently feature cute dogs (except, ironically enough, Nintendogs). He's even more favorable if the dogs are either helpful to the player, or if you actually get to play as the dog as part of the game mechanics. He's also hinted that he prefers the company of dogs to people, which is probably entirely correct.
  • It's Alive! with Brad: Whenever he encounters a dog, Brad will immediately stop what he's doing to fuss over it. Special mention goes to Toby Goofy, a tiny, utterly precious pup Brad met while learning to make chocolate in Ecuador. After that, any time Brad's projects involve chocolate, there will be a flashback to Toby Goofy.
  • BuzzFeed Celeb has a line of videos where celebrities play with cute puppies while answering fan questions for absolutely no reason other than they are adorable and it's fun to watch famous people fawn over them like you would. Here's Jake Gyllenhaal's.
  • Tucker Budzyn naturally features these frequently, including the videos of Tucker himself as a puppy, alongside the ones with Pearl and Flutter.

    Western Animation 
  • Barbie & Her Sisters in the Great Puppy Adventure: Puppies factor into the adventure, with Taffy helping to save the day. A lot of other movies in the Barbie franchise feature adorable animals as tag-alongs to the story, though usually Barbie has either a kitten or a puppy.
  • Bee and Puppycat: Puppycat, since he's apparently a Cute Kitten and a dog.
  • Blinky Bill: Shifty Dingo.
  • Blue's Clues: Blue, Magenta, and Green Puppy.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Valerie has a pink poodle named "Tinkypuppypoodlepepon" which even the allergic-to-affection Numbah 4 can't resist melting over.
  • Dora the Explorer: Dora's puppy, Perrito (Spanish for "puppy") makes things so much more precious that Swiper won't swipe a gift once he learns that it's for Perrito.
  • Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes: One episode has a brief bit where Johnny brings a dog into the lab. Reed warns Johnny that he won't save the Torch from Sue's wrath. But Sue's only reaction is to squeal and go "Puppy!"
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The episode "Who Let the Dogs In?" has Eduardo taking care of an adorable puppy (he names it "Chewy") and ends up finding many more, which Mac and the others (but not Bloo) also find adorable. Turns out the puppies are all imaginary, and each extraordinary in its own way.
  • The Get Along Gang: Dotty Dog from the 1984 series is a female spaniel who's one of the show's leading characters and also a cheerleader. The Get Along Gang Along was also created by America Greetings, the same company that brought us Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: In the Christmas special, the first sign of Skeletor's reluctant Heel–Face Turn is when he takes along the puppy that the two Earth children he's kidnapped have found.
    Little Girl: It was nice of you to save Relay, Mr. Skeletor.
    Skeletor: I am not nice! (puppy licks his face) Stop that!
    Little Girl: You want me to hold him?
    Skeletor: Er, no, no. We'll go faster if I carry him.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: While Humanity Ensues for Twilight Sparkle, Spike the baby dragon gets turned into a puppy. Of course, the reaction of the Fluttershy native to the High School AU upon seeing Spike is no different from that of the original Fluttershy when she first saw him.
  • PAW Patrol: All the rescue puppies definitely count.
  • Pip Ahoy!: The titular Pip is a cute fluffy brown puppy.
  • Pound Puppies: While neither the 1980s or the 2010 versions count in themselves, the adopted puppies do. Each presents the puppies as cute and adorable improvements on their in-universe families' lives.
  • Puppy Dog Pals: Bingo and Rolly, the titular pals, fit this trope perfectly.
  • Rosie's Rules: Everyone considers Benito, Tia Margarita's dog, to be adorable. Well, except Gatita.
  • Samurai Jack: Robot assassin X-49 from the episode "The Tale of X-49" adopts a cute pug named Lulu (sweet thing) before retiring from his life of violence. All is well until Aku kidnaps Lulu to force X-9 to take One Last Job and kill Jack. He fails, his last words pleading to Jack to make sure Lulu is safe.
  • Sesame Street: The 2021 animated special exclusive to HBO Max titled Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy involves Elmo and Grover befriending a female stray puppy named "Tango". Throughout the special, they try taking her to Sesame Street's "Pet Adoption Fair" held at the park. However, Elmo and Grover missed the event which causes Elmo to fully adopt Tango and become his second pet. Tango later debuted on the main show on November 11th, 2021.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: In the first episode, Star shows off the powers of her magic wand by summoning a litter of adorable puppies... who randomly fire Eye Beams.
  • Strawberry Shortcake: On Berry Bitty Adventures, Strawberry has had Pupcake, from the beginning. However, season three gives each of the other six girls a dog. Why? Well, there are two reasons. This is the other one.
    • More like merchandising failure. None of the puppies apparently made it to toy form. In fact, Hasbro seems to have given up on Strawberry Shortcake and there are rumors that they're already in talks to relinquish their rights to produce the toys to another company. The toy rights were eventually sold to a startup called Bridge Direct.
    • The 2003 incarnation of Strawberry Shortcake also had Pupcake from the beginning.
  • Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas, a dog at the mansion of Toot's grandmother gives birth to a load of adorable puppies. What really makes this weird is that the dog and pups have absolutely no anthropomorphism in a series where pretty much every other animal displays anthropomorphism of some type. It seems they really are just a litter of cute puppies.
  • Totally Spies!: In "Arnold the Great", Alex comes across a lost puppy. Sam and Clover instantly swoon over it but remain firm that they should try to find the real owner. Although initially repulsed, Jerry is eventually won over and becomes even more attached to the puppy than the girls.
  • Woezel & Pip: This Dutch preschool series stars titular characters who are adorable puppies. Their closest friend is a grey kitten named "Burrpoes", a living tree, and a mole.

    Real Life 
  • Police dogs. Police departments recognized this trope and, instead of training them only to be vicious and apprehend resistive suspects as they did in the past, now train them to do that and roll over for a belly rub at community events and liaisons to help seem less intimidating to children, and to pretty much anyone else.
  • Fire departments used to employ dalmatians to run alongside the firefighters' wagons, keeping the horses that drew the wagons from panicking as well as barking to let civilians know to make way. With the advent of fire trucks, dalmatians now serve primarily as the firefighters' mascots.
  • One of the cover photos for Barack Obama's Facebook page was of him petting his dog at some point.
  • This Cracked article explains it all.
  • A lot of the grammar error examples in the Microsoft Word program tend to be sentences involving dogs. For example, if the user puts a comma before a conjunction, the sentence "The dog went to the park, and learned how to play fetch" is shown as an example of this mistake, and if the user must resolve a disagreement with a noun phrase, the sentence "We already have two sweet puppy" is shown to be the example.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Everythings Precious With Puppies, Precious Puppies

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Dave Hides Behind a Puppy

Dave hides behind a puppy in a gutless attempt to save his own skin instead of fighting Chuckles. Candy and Fang even calls him out for this.

How well does it match the trope?

4.93 (15 votes)

Example of:

Main / DirtyCoward

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