One morning, Mariella is trying to feed Jake his breakfast, but he seems more interested in playing with Martha than eating. He eventually starts eating anyway, while Martha scratches her ear. She scratches it again near the coffee table, accidentally knocking over Danny's card house. He tells her to go away, so she goes to Helen's room, but her scratching distracts Helen from writing. When Martha scratches in the middle of the night and wakes Helen and her parents up, Mariella decides to take her to the vet.
The vet determines that Martha has ear mites, prescribes ear drops, and has Martha wear a cone on her head so she doesn't scratch her ear. The cone makes Martha clumsy and she has trouble reaching her food dish, carrying sticks, and using the doggie door while wearing it. Then, that night, Skits bothers her by sniffing the cone.
The next morning, Martha is tired because she mistook the sound of her own breath for that of a bear in the night, then to make matters worse, her cone scares Jake. When she tries to play with him later, he's scared of her cone again, and Helen tells Martha to stay away from him, making Martha sad.
She goes outside and complains about her cone, then T.D. approaches. She complains about her cone, so he takes her to see his father O.G.. O.G. learns a few "words" in Dog from Martha and then shows her several of his inventions, including a mirror that shows your hair at different lengths, a sandwich with print on it, an edible book, and a loud machine that even he doesn't know the purpose of. Martha asks O.G. if he can make her something, so he tries on the cone, and can't see any problem with it except for the clumsiness. Martha explains that the cone scares Jake, so O.G. decides that the solution is to make something that's less scary to a baby.
He tries a space-helmet-like device but it's hard for her to breathe, so he adds an oxygen tank, but T.D. is scared of it, so he sends her home in a clown mask, but this still scares Jake. On the steps, Martha, now wearing her cone again, sulks about looking like a "spaceman or an alien", which gives T.D. an idea.
That night, Martha is trying to convince Helen to let her move into the basement until the cone is removed, when T.D. shows up, having written a story for Jake, entitled Space Dog Martha. In the story, Martha and Jake are astronauts going to the moon, and Martha wears a helmet shaped like a cone. The "moon" in the story turns out to be a fake moon, built by a villain named Dr. Arms, with a cleaning robot. The story's versions of Martha and Jake run in circles until the robot ties itself and Dr. Arms into knots. It works, and Jake is no longer scared of Martha's cone.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Martha tries on a helmet, an oxygen tank, and a clown mask.
- Accidental Misnaming: Due to his young age, Jake calls Martha "Tha".
- Accidental Nightmare Fuel: In-Universe, the helmet with the oxygen tank and the clown mask were designed to be less scary than the cone, but end up scaring T.D. and Jake respectively.
- Absurd Phobia: Jake is afraid of Martha's cone. Justified, since he's only about 19-21 months old (he's described on the official website as being "a few months shy of two"), and babies and toddlers are often fearful of alterations to the appearances of familiar people/pets/things.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: In Space Dog Martha, Jake is an astronaut, and he's implied to still be a baby in the story because he's illustrated sleeping in a crib.
- Bears Are Bad News: Discussed when Martha has trouble sleeping due to mishearing her own breath (echoing in her cone) as that of a bear.
- But You Were There, and You, and You: Justified. T.D.'s story is about Martha and Jake, since he wrote it specifically to help Jake get over his fear of Martha's cone.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Martha is told to "scratch someplace else", she says that it wouldn't work, since it's her ear that itches.
- Cone of Shame: Martha's Elizabethan collar leads to several gags, including her thinking her echo-y voice sounds like a radio announcer and the cone making her clumsy.
- Episode Tagline: Martha keeps saying, "Ow!" whenever she bumps into something.
- Evil Laugh: T.D. says, "Ha ha ha!" in an evil voice when speaking for his story's villain.
- Fooled by the Sound: Martha is made to wear a cone on her head. At night, this causes her to mistake her own breath for that of a bear due to the echoing, keeping her awake.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: In Space Dog Martha, Martha wears a spacesuit.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: Space Dog Martha ends with Jake going to bed, since it's bedtime when he and Martha arrive back home.
- Harmless Villain: The villain of Space Dog Martha is a guy named Dr. Arms, who's talked up as evil, but the worst thing he does is try to make Jake and Martha take a bath.
- Hates Baths: In Space Dog Martha, not only does Martha hate baths as usual, but so does Jake, who both run around like crazy to avoid being bathed by a robot.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The villain of Space Dog Martha is called Dr. Arms (though Jake's persona is named Dr. Jake and he's not evil).
- My God, What Have I Done?: Martha feels guilty about scaring Jake.
- One-Episode Fear: Jake's fear of Martha's cone only lasts for this episode due to T.D.'s story.
- Priceless Ming Vase: When Martha scratches near a side table, the vase on it falls off and breaks.
- Sleep Deprivation: The morning after Martha gets her cone, she's a bit groggy because she mistook her breath echoing for a bear breathing.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Downplayed. Martha teaches O.G. his first word in Dog.
- Tears of Fear: When Jake is afraid of Martha's cone, he cries. Justified, since he's a toddler, and toddlers often cry when they're scared.
