History Main / TroublesomePet

Owning a pet is a big responsibility, and oftentimes, the fur babies' animal instincts can cause their owner a lot of grief. They'd [[RoadApples poo]] and [[UrineTrouble pee]] all over the place, chew on/scratch furniture, steal food, [[ADogAteMyHomework eat homework]], destroy gardens, get into fights with the neighbor's pets, [[BewareOfViciousDog attack neighbors]], or even attack their own humans. Whenever they get taken out for walks, they'd almost certainly [[DogWalksYou run off and drag their owner behind them]]. Particularly, rowdy pets may even cause usually pet-friendly establishments to declare NoAnimalsAllowed.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
** In "Spike Runs Away", Didi adopts a PsychoPoodle named Cuddles to [[ReplacementGoldfish replace Spike]] after [[TropeyComeHome he's gone missing]]. She turns out to have an IronicName; she bites and growls at people, chews up Tommy's toys, and steals snacks. It isn't long before Didi gives her back to her original owner.
** Spike and Fifi's son Spiffy is quite the mischievous puppy; he tends to nip at people playfully and tear through the house. When [[TrainingThePet Lou tries to teach him tricks]] in "Trading Phil", Dil turns out to be better at obeying his commands than Spiffy.

Owning a pet is a big responsibility, and oftentimes, the fur babies' animal instincts can cause their owner a lot of grief. They'd [[RoadApples poo]] and [[UrineTrouble pee]] all over the place, chew on/scratch furniture, steal food, [[ADogAteMyHomework eat homework]], destroy gardens, get into fights with the neighbor's pets, [[BewareOfViciousDog attack neighbors]], or even attack their own humans. Whenever they get taken out for walks, they'd almost certainly [[DogWalksYou run off and drag their owner behind them]]. Particularly, rowdy pets may cause usually pet-friendly establishments to declare NoAnimalsAllowed.

Of course, the pet's troublesome behaviour is rarely born of malice. Oftentimes, they're just [[BigFriendlyDog a fun-loving and affectionate animal]] whose excess energy and enthusiasm just [[InnocentlyInsensitive don't align with their owner's propriety standards]], and they're still a LoyalAnimalCompanion despite their penchant for mischief. This is especially true when the pet is still basically a [[BrattyHalfPint toddler/child]], and would eventually learn to behave better as they mature. If not, the exasperated owner may try TrainingThePet to behave, with varying degrees of success.

For this reason, the owners usually still love the pet and treat them as an important, if maddening, part of their family. However, if the pet's behaviour becomes much more troublesome than the owners are willing to handle, [[UnsuccessfulPetAdoption the pet may eventually get sent away]].

Not to be confused with TroublemakingNewPet, when a character gets a new pet to accompany an existing one, who proceeds to wreak havoc and get the older pet in trouble.

[[folder:Comic Strip]]

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': When Dick gifts Mary a Golden Retriever, it quickly goes pear shaped, as the dog likes to dry hump. A lot. That's not even the worst of it's qualities either.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In “The Domino Effect”, Anne rescues a caterpillar that reminds her of her pet cat back home. After taking her back to the house, Anne finds out that wild caterpillars are much more aggressive and destructive, [[spoiler: and it only gets worse when it transforms into a giant, ravenous moth.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'': In "My Fair Cat Lady", Adelaide tries to train the aggressive clowder of stray cats. However, she only teaches them to behave [[AndYourRewardIsEdible to earn fish]], so when their new owners don't have fish, the cats become aggressive again and the owners give them up.* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Nibbler, Leela's pet alien, often annoys the other characters by [[ExtremeOmnivore eating random objects]].
* ''WesternAnimation/HaileysOnIt'': In “The Flamingo Must Flamin-Go”, Hailey adopts Frank, an overly affectionate flamingo that molts constantly, periodically coughs up slimy featgerballs, and goes into a feeding frenzy whenever it smells shrimp. Unlike most examples, Hailey actually keeps Frank for the rest of the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'': Invoked in "Puppy for a Day". The kids want to prove to Miss Nanny that they're responsible enough for a dog, so they have Rizzo the Rat pretend to be a puppy. He causes some trouble for them, such as [[DogWalksYou dragging Summer through various locations when they go for a walk]] and [[BigEater eating too much pizza]]. By the end of it, the kids admit that having a dog is more trouble than it's worth.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In "Mr. Mojo's Rising", it's revealed that before Mojo became an UpliftedAnimal, he was Professor Utonium's pet monkey who frequently tore through his lab and smashed his inventions.

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': When Dick gifts Mary a Golden Retriever, it quickly goes pear shaped, as the dog likes to dry hump. A lot. That's not even the worst of it's qualities either.

** In the quarterfinals, Hurricane wants to play catch while Adrian is gardening, and she tries to get his attention by pulling at his gardening hose and tangling him in it, knocking over the trash can he's using to prune some bushes, then finally knocking him ''into'' the can, before Adrian finally relents to play with her.
** In one of the Final performances with celebrity chef Cat Cora, Hurricane continually disrupts Adrian's cooking by eating his carrot, dropping a ladle into his sauce, knocking his hand while he's adding ingredients to make him spill his peas, switching his salt with sugar, stealing his tongs when he's about to plate his dish, then knocking him into the counter after he manages to snatch back the tongs, causing him to spill his dish all over the kitchen.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': In "[[Recap/FriendsS5E21TheOneWithTheBall The One with the Ball]]", Rachel buys a Sphinx cat, expecting it to have the sweet personality of the one her grandmother had. However, Mrs Whiskerton hisses at whoever approaches her and scratches Rachel.

** In the [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} first animated film]], right after Aladdin narrowly gets Princess Jasmine out of trouble with an angry fruit vendor who was going to [[DisproportionateRetribution cut off her hand for taking an apple without paying for it]], Abu bows respectfully to the vendor- and spills three apples that he stuffed into his little vest earlier, forcing the heroes to run for it. Later on in the film, he gets Aladdin in trouble again by trying to steal a gigantic ruby that he sees in the Cave of Wonders, despite the Cave making it clear that the [[GenieInABottle Lamp]] is the only treasure they're allowed to touch. Because of this, the Cave [[BerserkButton flips its lid]] and traps both Abu and Aladdin inside itself, ''after'' nearly drowning them in lava.

* ''Film/BruceAlmighty'': Bruce's dog is always peeing on his furniture. Eventually, [[spoiler: he manages to train the dog to pee outside by bringing his furniture outside.]]

Owning a pet is a big responsibility, and oftentimes, the fur babies' animal instincts can cause their owner a lot of grief. They'd [[RoadApples poo]] and [[UrineTrouble pee]] all over the place, chew on/scratch furniture, steal food, [[ADogAteMyHomework eat homework]], destroy gardens, get into fights with the neighbor's pets, [[BewareOfViciousDog attack neighbors]], or even attack their own humans. Whenever they get taken out for walks, they'd almost certainly [[DogWalksYou run off and drag their owner behind them]]. Particularly rowdy pets may cause usually pet-friendly establishments to declare NoAnimalsAllowed.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': In [[Recap/FriendsS5E21TheOneWithTheBall The One with the Ball]]", Rachel buys a Sphinx cat, expecting it to have the sweet personality of the one her grandmother had. However, Mrs Whiskerton hisses at whoever approaches her and scratches Rachel.

* In the kids' book ''Some Swell Pup, or, Are You Sure You Want a Dog?'', two children who [[MinorLivingAlone appear to live alone]] adopt a puppy. However, the puppy is annoying --- she's not housebroken and chews on everything. An [[FurryConfusion anthropomorphic dog]] teaches them the HardTruthAesop that she's too young to be trained now, but that these behaviours are just a phase.

Of course, the pet's troublesome behaviour is rarely born of malice. Oftentimes, they're just [[BigFriendlyDog a fun-loving and affectionate animal]] whose excess energy and enthusiasm just [[InnocentlyInsensitive don't align with their owner's propriety standards]], and they're still a LoyalAnimalCompanion despite their penchant of mischief. This is especially true when the pet is still basically a [[BrattyHalfPint toddler/child]], and would eventually learn to behave better as they mature. If not, the exasperated owner may try TrainingThePet to behave, with varying degrees of success.

* ''Manga/{{Inubaka}}'': While the bulk of the series deal with how dogs can misbehave when their owners don't train/coach them properly, Lupin is by far the most prone to get into trouble. Basically a canine version of an IdiotHero and CasanovaWannabe, Lupin frequently embarrasses Suguri by trying to go after female dogs even outside mating season, steal Suguri's underwear, snatch treats from other dogs, and at one point broke a dog treat dispenser because he wants to get all the food inside.

* ''Film/MarleyAndMe'': John Grogan's Labrador Retriever, Marley, is very destructive and poorly-behaved, and his owner describes him as the world's worst dog. It has been suggested that Marley suffers from a mental illness that makes him to be much more hyperactive than other dogs, and he's otherwise a loyal and loving dog to his family.

** In ''Dog Days'', Greg's father Frank decides to get a new dog, to the rest of his family's displeasure. The dog, named Sweetie by Susan, is lazy and is particularly a nuisance to Greg: he sleeps in the middle of Greg's bed--leaving little room for Greg to sleep on--then use Greg's face as a launch pad when he gets up; when not on bed, Sweetie likes to laze around on the living room couch, which prevents people from sitting down and watch TV, then bark at the TV unless a particular commercial is playing. He is eventually given away to Greg's grandmother.

* ''Literature/HankTheCowdog'': The titular canine has a good heart, but a mixture of his pride and [[KnowNothingKnowItAll lower intelligence than he thinks he has]] causes him to get into lots of trouble, ranging from swimming in the sceptic tank, to getting bitten by a rattlesnake right before the cowboys leave on a business trip, or eating and dispelling forty bucks worth of donuts.
* ''Literature/HenryHuggins'': Henry's dog Ribsy is often considered a nuisance by the neighbors, and causes all sorts of trouble for Henry by chasing his neighbor's cat, ruining their flowerbeds, stealing food and newspapers, etc. This becomes a major plot point in ''Henry and Ribsy'', where Mr. Huggins's requirement for allowing Henry to join his fishing trip is to keep Ribsy out of trouble for two weeks.

** In "Beaky", Milly tries to adopt a duck named Beaky, but is not allowed to keep the duck, since Beaky [[BirdPoopGag isn't house trained]] and keeps chasing Marmalade the cat.

** In one of the Final performance with celebrity chef Cat Cora, Hurricane continually disrupts Adrian's cooking by eating his carrot, dropping a ladle into his sauce, knocking his hand while he's adding ingredients to make him spill his peas, switching his salt with sugar, stealing his tongs when he's about to plate his dish, then knocking him into the counter after he manages to snatch back the tongs, causing him to spill his dish all over the kitchen.

** The Casagrandes' parrot Sergio is often a nuisance to them because [[PollyWantsAMicrophone he can talk and he's often rude]] and he throws night time rave parties.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Santa's Little Helper is not the brightest bulb in the box. He'll eat whatever is in sight, frequently destroys items around the Simpsons' household due to his sheer size, and rarely obeys commands. One particularly notable example is in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E16BartsDogGetsAnF Bart's Dog Gets an F]]", where SLH destroys a precious family heirloom, which forces him to go to obedience school. He (barely) passes, but it doesn't take very long for [[StatusQuoIsGod things to go back to square one]], as SLH apparently bit Bart shortly after graduation. [[AbusiveParents Homer didn't mind, though]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "Dumped", Gary [[TropeyComeHome runs away]] to live with Patrick instead of [=SpongeBob=], who then adopts another snail, named Larry. However, he eventually gives Larry up, because he's grumpy, doesn't like his food, and steals [=SpongeBob's=] bed.