Dog Man Unleashed

Dog Man Unleashed (2017) by Dav Pilkey is a middle grade graphic novel about Dog Man, a police officer who is part human and part dog. Dog Man has humorous adventures with his fellow officers as they celebrate the police chief’s birthday and try to stop villains from carrying out their evil plans. This novel is the second in Pilkey’s Dog Man series, which began with Dog Man (2016). It explores themes of The Struggle Between Good and Evil, The Importance of Creativity and Silliness, and The Power of Friendship and Loyalty. Pilkey is well-known for his graphic novels for young people, including the popular Captain Underpants series. 

This study guide refers to the 2021 Graphix hardcover first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, and racism.

Language Note: The source text uses nonstandard capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and syntax to emulate young authors’ writing. This guide’s quotations of source material preserve these choices from the original text, except in the case of capitalization. Standard capitalizations replace any nonstandard capitalizations used for effect in the source text.

Plot Summary

Elementary school students George Beard and Harold Hutchins introduce the comic they wrote and provide background information about what happened in the previous installment. In the first Dog Man adventure, Petey the Cat planted a bomb that blew up Officer Knight and Greg the Dog. At the hospital, the doctor implanted Greg’s head onto Knight’s body, creating Dog Man. Dog Man has the fighting skills, strength, and pure heart of Officer Knight and the keen senses and loyal brain of Greg the Dog. This makes him the greatest police officer in the world. He has canine habits that bother his fellow officers: He rolls in dead fish, licks people, and is obsessed with balls.

In the narrative present, Dog Man is in the police station. The whole team plans a party for the Chief’s birthday. Dog Man goes to the pet store to buy a fish because the officers believe the Chief is lonely. Dog Man causes chaos by sampling the kibble, licking the bones, and chasing balls. He sees a little dog, Zuzu, that he finds beautiful: He sniffs her rear end and tries to get to know her, but she turns away. He tries to buy a fish but has no money. An irritated employee retrieves a fish that the store wants to get rid of. She tells another employee that the fish is evil—it stole all the store’s miniature treasure chests, tried to take over all the tiny castles, and bullied the other fish. They give the fish to Dog Man. A reporter called Sarah Hatoff buys Zuzu. She tells Dog Man that she is his biggest fan. Dog Man takes the fish back to the police station.

The fish named Flippy delights the Chief. He also gets a supplement bottle called “Brain Dots” because his forgetfulness concerns the officers. When the Chief leaves the Brain Dots on a shelf near Flippy’s bowl, the bottle tips over, and Flippy eats many. The pills make Flippy very smart and give him telekinetic powers. The Chief gets a call about a robbery at the pet store. He sends Dog Man to investigate. Dog Man rushes in, but instead of helping everyone who is tied up—the store employees, Sarah, and Zuzu—he plays with a bin of squeaky balls. When the people finally get his attention, he unties them. Sarah shows him a picture of the robber that she took. The thief looks like an orange-and-black striped cat in a long coat, with a box on its head, walking on its hind legs.

When Sarah posts an article about the robbery, an officer at the cat jail thinks that he recognizes the thief’s photo. He heads for the cell where Petey, an orange-and-black striped cat, is and accuses Petey of being the thief. Petey believes someone is impersonating him, and he breaks out of jail to find the imposter. He cuts out a paper version of himself and lays it on the floor with a bulletin board on top. He hides and then yells out for help, claiming that the falling bulletin board flattened him. The officer rushes in and calls 911. Petey escapes. The EMTs carry the paper version of Petey to their ambulance. They mistakenly take it to Dr. Boog E. Feeva, a witch doctor who uses “Living Spray” to bring the paper to life as Flat Petey. Flat Petey knocks the EMTs unconscious playing rock, paper, scissors and uses “Obey Spray” to bring Feeva under his control.

Sarah tells Dog Man that the thief took no money during the robbery; he only stole plastic treasure chests. Petey decides that if the thief is obsessed with treasure chests, he will create a giant one to lure the thief. He builds the Treasure Tank 2000, a working tank shaped like a treasure chest. Armed with his “Love Ray,” he sets out to fill the tank up with treasure. Meanwhile, the robber enters a real estate office. He tries to buy a castle with the plastic treasure chests he stole from the pet store. The real estate agent explains that they are worthless; the robber needs real treasure. He points at the television, where Sarah is broadcasting a story about Petey’s Treasure Tank 2000. Petey is using his Love Ray to make people fall in love with him and give him all their treasures, and the tank is filling up fast. The robber decides to steal the Treasure Tank.

Dog Man jumps on top of the tank, intending to stop Petey from taking everyone’s treasure. Petey tries to zap him with the Love Ray, but he misses. Dog Man rocks the tank back and forth, trying to get a red ball on top of it. Petey falls off the tank. A crowd of people who are in love with Petey chases him, demanding kisses. He hurries back to cat jail and turns himself in. Flat Petey and Boog E. Feeva catch up with the Treasure Tank 2000, but Dog Man is still rocking it back and forth. Flat Petey goes into a museum and sprays a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton with Living Spray and Obey Spray. He orders the now-animate fossil to attack Dog Man. Dog Man runs from the dinosaur’s snapping jaws, and Flat Petey and Feeva take control of the tank. Zuzu takes a bone from Sarah’s purse to show Sarah how they can help Dog Man. Sarah calls out to the Chief that he should remind Dog Man that skeletons are made of bones. Once Dog Man realizes the dinosaur chasing him is made of bones, he loses his fear and vigorously licks the T. rex. This amuses the dinosaur, turning it into Dog Man’s friend. Flat Petey is disappointed, but he is excited about spending all the treasure. However, the mysterious pet store thief shows up and demands that Flat Petey hand over the Treasure Tank 2000.

The robber uses his telekinetic powers to bombard the tank with heavy objects. Zuzu pulls the robber’s long coat off. The robber is Flippy; his bowl is under a box, perched on an orange-and-black striped stool. While Flippy explains his powers to Sarah and the police officers, Flat Petey and Feeva drive away in the tank. Flippy follows, with Sarah, Zuzu, Dog Man, and the Chief close behind. Flat Petey drove onto a snow-covered mountain, and by the time the police arrive, Flat Petey gloats over Flippy, whose bowl of water is nearly completely frozen and who is fading into unconsciousness.

Wanting to keep all the treasure, Flat Petey kicks Feeva off the tank’s top. When Feeva lands near Flippy’s bowl, Flippy sees a book about body snatching that Feeva has been carrying. Flippy uses his last energy to read the book and turn himself into a ball of pure energy. He chases the Chief, trying to possess the Chief’s body, but because Flippy is now shaped like a ball, Dog Man catches him in his mouth and will not let go. Flippy quickly fades away into nothing and is gone.

Flat Petey runs over the Chief’s car with the Treasure Tank 2000. He tells Dog Man, the Chief, Sarah, Zuzu, and Feeva that they will freeze to death trying to hike down the mountain. He gloats that because he is made of paper, he cannot freeze. Dog Man licks him, making him wet with dog saliva. Flat Petey freezes stiff. Dog Man, the Chief, Sarah, Zuzu, and Feeva climb onto him and ride him down the mountainside like a sled. At the bottom, Flat Petey thaws. He is furious. Feeva asks whether he knows how to play rock, paper, scissors. Feeva animates a pair of scissors from his bag. They chase Flat Petey away. Dog Man and the Chief walk home. The Chief says it has been a wonderful birthday because it was full of nonsense, and no one learned anything.