History Main / DisneyDogFight

* Parodied at the end of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', where Castle and Beckett were sharing the duties of taking care of the dog of the VictimOfTheWeek. At the end, neither can bear to part with him, so the standard Dog Fight ensues, and the dog goes to...the freshly-cleared celebutante suspect, who already has a handbag chihuahua of her own.

* In one of the ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'' shorts, Nyarko thinks her pet [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Shantak]] is getting too attached to Mahiro, but insists that she'd always choose her real owner. Mahiro suggests doing this test and despite Nyarko's attempts to call, Shantak immediately jumps into Mahiro's arms. Nyarko flips out and, one RelaxOVision sequence later, she's snuggling a badly beaten-up Shantak and cooing "Oh, I ''knew'' you'd pick Mommy!" while a terrified Mahiro calls her a monster.

* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', England and France do this with a young America. He eventually chooses England after England gets depressed that he can't offer anything as good as France can.
* Subverted ''and'' played Straight in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' in "The Beckoning Calico Cat," where the animal in question is a rare male calico cat. One of the hopeful (non-)owners used catnip to attract the cat, who subsequently was all over him. Later played straight when the cat recognized his real owner by the sound of the footsteps through a closed door.

* Parodied in an early issue of ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', with Robin and {{Parody}} villain [[DarkAgeOfSuperNames Riproar]] convincing, not a dog, but a sentient ''car'' to come with one of them. [[spoiler:The car goes with Robin]].

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'', Percy the pug actually abandons his evil owner Governor Ratcliff in favor of the title heroine -- though no one ever asked him to and Ratcliff doesn't seem to notice.
* A variant in ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodDinosaur''. Forrest, the pet collector, takes an interest in Arlo's nameless pet human, and quickly says, "I name him, I keep him!" Cue the two of them [[RapidFireComedy rapidly]] taking turns calling out {{Stock Animal Name}}s at the human until he finally responds when Arlo says "Spot".

* ''Film/SeeSpotRun''

* Jack London's ''BrownWolf'' is an early example of this trope.

* At the end of the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Requiem for Methuselah", RobotGirl Rayna Kapec must choose between Flint and Captain Kirk. The strain causes her to overload and die.
* Parodied in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', where Turk and JD act out such a scene with Rowdy, their dead stuffed dog.
* In a ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' B-Story, Alex sees a man whip his Great Dane as he's about to get out of the cab. Once the man gets out of the cab, Alex speeds away with the dog. Later in the garage, the man comes back with a policeman in tow demanding his dog back. They do the standard bit of Alex on one side and the man on the other both calling to get the dog to come to them. After a few minutes, the dog goes over to the man...and attacks him.
* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had two victims: one killed by gun and another killed by dog bites to the neck. The investigation of evidence showed that the two victims were husband and wife, and they were getting a divorce. They were arguing over who'd get 'custody' of their pet dog. The female victim had bacon grease under her fingernails to lure the dog to her side. [[spoiler:How did they die? The husband got a similar dog to replace the first dog. The wife found out and shot him. The gunshot scared the new dog (due to him being abused) and he attacked the woman, killing her.]]

* The second-season finale of ''Series/SeventhHeaven''. Happy won a guest spot on a TV show, which was seen by a little girl and her father...said little girl happened to be the dog's original owner and demanded her daddy get "Whitey" back right away. Daddy did indeed take the dog back as Simon and Ruthie cried their eyes out, only for Happy to run away and rejoin the Camden clan. The original owners understood and took their loss gracefully.
* In ''Series/WillAndGrace,'' Jack has to decide between his friend Karen and Lorraine Finster (who married Karen's husband Stan while in prison and now has all his money) in this way. Driven home when Karen pulls out a tennis ball and Jack complains they're about to make him piddle on the carpet.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' with NEPTR, the Never-Ending-Pie-Throwing-Robot choosing between Finn and [[spoiler:the Ice King.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In the episode "Mars University", Guenter the monkey wears a hat that gives him super-intelligence. Eventually he decides to return to the wild and so removes his hat and runs away. So the Planet Express crew goes to bring him back. But Leela thinks that he should be able to stay in the wild if that's what he wants. Cue the Disney Dog Fight, except with a monkey deciding between a hat and a banana.
* ''WesternAnimation/FancyNancy'' does virtually the same plot as the ''[=SpongeBob=]'' example with "Frenchy, Mon Amour", as Nancy's dog Frenchy prefers to go with Jojo. He goes back to Nancy in the end when it's revealed he only wanted to go with Jojo because of a sandwich in her overalls.
* A Disney ''Cat'' Fight happens on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', when Pete tricks Goofy into giving up Waffles so he can use him in commercials. Any time Goofy or Max tries to get the cat back, Pete quickly lures him to his side with steak and lobster, which ultimately foils his plan when Waffles's appetite is spoiled and he's no longer able to eat the food in the commercials.

* ''Film/AirBud'', as mentioned above.

In TV Land, when two people lay claim to a pet, things like bills of sale do not matter. No, in matters such as these, it is always best to put the pet between the two owners, and let the pet decide. What we have is a good old-fashioned Disney Dog Fight.

* In the classic Chekhov's story Kashtanka (which surprisingly [[{{Pun}} doesn't feature any]] [[ChekhovsGun guns]]), the eponymous dog heartily rushes to her previous neglectful owner as soon as she sees him, despite her new owner treating her much better.

* In a ''Series/{{Taxi}}'' B-Story, Alex sees a man whip his Great Dane as he's about to get out of the cab. Once the man gets out of the cab, Alex speeds away with the dog. Later in the garage the man comes back with a policeman in tow demanding his dog back. They do the standard bit of Alex on one side and the man on the other both calling to get the dog to come to them. After a few minutes the dog goes over to the man...and attacks him.
* One episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had two victims: one killed by gun and another killed by dog bites to the neck. The investigation of evidence showed that the two victims were husband and wife, and they were getting a divorce. They were arguing over who'd get 'custody' of their pet dog. The female victim had bacon grease under her fingernails to lure the dog to her side. [[spoiler:How did they die? The husband got a similar dog to replace the first dog. The wife found out and shot him. The gun shot scared the new dog (due to him being abused) and he attacked the woman, killing her.]]

* LetsPlay/SimonLane and LetsPlay/LewisBrindley once tried to get a pet wolf to do this in their [[WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries Minecraft series]] after getting in an argument about who tamed it. They forgot that once you've gotten a wolf to sit, it won't move until you click on it again.

** Also to Santa's Little Helper, when Bart gives him away, and he winds up with a blind man. Then Bart wants him back, and Santa's Little Helper, sort of has to choose between Bart and the blind man.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In the episode "Mars University", Guenter the monkey wears a hat which gives him super-intelligence. Eventually he decides to return to the wild and so removes his hat and runs away. So the Planet Express crew goes to bring him back. But Leela thinks that he should be able to stay in the wild if that's what he wants. Cue the Disney Dog Fight, except with a monkey deciding between a hat and a banana.