The film takes place within a small urban yard, where three young pups (Snoopy, Loopy and Droopy) are building their doghouses. Being based off the story of The Three Little Pigs, the pups respectively build houses of straw, sticks and bricks.
Of course, The Big Bad Wolf is prowling around, today acting as a dog-catcher. Droopy, the only one who built a practical doghouse, must act to keep the Wolf from capturing Snoopy and Loopy.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: As mellow and humble as the Wolf is, he's still trying to break into dogs' homes and kidnap them to take to the city pound for no discernible reason.
- Animal Jingoism: The Wolf attempts to use this by donning a handpuppet of a cat and meowing at the pups from behind a fence. Droopy turns this back on him with a wind-up mousetoy, which the cat-puppet immediately goes after, dragging the Wolf along. A few seconds later, the cat-puppet almost runs into a large bulldog, and in fright climbs to the top of a power line pole.
- Battering Ram: The Wolf tries using a large log to break down Droopy's doghouse door, only for the actual wood to slide out, leaving the cloth-like bark in the Wolf's hands."Mighty poor grade of log, this here. Green lumber."
- Behind a Stick: More like Behind a Telephone Pole, but the Wolf and his vehicle do this twice in quick succession.
- The Big Bad Wolf: Tex debuts a new version of his wolf character; this one has a Southern drawl (provided by Daws Butler) and a deadpan demeanor matching Droopy's.
- Brats with Slingshots: Droopy uses one to shoot the Wolf down from the power line pole.Droopy: Eight ball in the hip-pocket.
- Brick Joke: After being bitten by the bulldog, the Wolf changes pants and leaves his old pants hanging on the changing screen, with the dog still attached. Then the Wolf needs to change pants again and goes back to the changing screen, where the bulldog is still clinging to his pants."Break it up, son. Joke's over, hear?"
- Butt Biter: The bulldog not only latches onto the Wolf's rear end, but remains attached to his pants even after the Wolf changes them.
- Establishing Character Moment: Played with for the Wolf, who starts off with the persona of a sadistic dog-catcher, only to immediately revert to a Mellow Fellow after Droopy's doghouse of bricks proves impenetrable.
- Fooled by the Sound: The Dogcatcher attempts to blow up the brick house with dynamite. Droopy use a paper bag to pop near the Dogcatcher. He thought he blew up so he checked, but the dynamite blew up right in front of him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When the Wolf last explosives doesn't leave even a single scratch on the doghouse, he decided to go into television.
- Leitmotif: The Wolf can be heard whistling the old Civil War tune "Kingdom Coming" on an almost-constant basis.
- Medium Blending: The pups are watching a live-action Western on their television. In the end, the Wolf appears in the show after vowing to go into television if his last plan failed.
- Mellow Fellow: The wolf is strangely laid-back and calm even when beset with constant failure, which sticks throughout all shorts featuring him.
- The Nameless: The Wolf goes unnamed throughout the cartoons.
- Not Hyperbole: "This here's the last straw, man. I'm telling yall right now. If this don't work I'll...I'll go into television!"
- Pain to the Ass: The Wolf gets hurt on the butt twice, first when a bulldog bites it, then when he's hit by a missile. In both cases, the cause of the pain stay attached to the Wolf's pants, even after he's taken them off.
- Paper-Bag Popping: Done by Droopy to trick the Wolf into thinking his explosives went off, only for the Wolf to then run into said explosion.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: The Wolf attempts this with a grenade on a stick, only to end up with both pin and grenade in his teeth. When it explodes in his face, he loses at least seven teeth (which Droopy catches in a bin).
- The Stoic: At last, Droopy gets an antagonist that's as deadpan as he is.
- Surprisingly Super-Tough Thing: "The Three Little Pups" has Droopy’s brick doghouse. While it obviously holds against the Wolf trying to blow it down, it also manages to survive against an axe, hammer, having its door rammed by a log, and enough explosives to level a town. Lampshaded by the Wolf in the cartoon."Now there’s a well-built doghouse, man."
- Verbal Tic: The Wolf tends to add "man" to a fair number of his sentences."Now there's a well-built doghouse, man."
"Meow, man!" - Worthy Opponent: The Wolf compliments Droopy both in how well the doghouse is built and how smart he is after the paper bag gag.
- You Do Not Want To Know: After the Wolf sucks up the pups' TV with a giant straw and it ends up in his stomach, it mysteriously reappears inside the house later, with Droopy making the comment:"Now don't ask how we got the television set back."
