Helen and Alice are playing jump-rope in the Lorraines' backyard, while Martha watches. T.D. drops by with a new toy for Martha and Skits, resembling a squirrel. Martha is unsure because she hates squirrels and is distracted by hunger, but when T.D. launches it through the air, both dogs become keen. The three kids have fun throwing the toy for the dogs, but then Skits refuses to give it back, and the two dogs start fighting over it when Martha snatches it from him.
The kids go inside and try to do their homework, but find it hard to concentrate with the sound of Skits barking and Martha arguing outside. Helen goes outside, confiscates the toy, berates Martha for being selfish, and puts it on the fridge until her dogs learn to play nice. This makes both her and the dogs a bit grumpy, but Helen puts her foot down and sends them both outside.
Once outside, the dogs continue to squabble, so Helen decides they're acting like babies and takes them to Truman's house to watch a kiddie show about sharing. Meanwhile, Alice and T.D. try to resume their homework, but get into their own argument over who was being selfish (Alice thinks Skits was the selfish one, while T.D. thinks it was Martha). When Helen returns home, the dogs have agreed to call a truce, but T.D. and Alice are arguing. Helen has T.D. and Alice watch the same kiddie show, but it just leads to them declaring that the opposite gender is selfish (since the two puppets on the show who had to learn to share were a boy and a girl).
At dinner, Helen complains about the argument to her parents, revealing that it's gotten worse and T.D. and Alice aren't even speaking now. Danny reveals that he and his schoolmate Dave argued over a toy plane in fifth grade and still haven't made up. To make matters worse, the dogs decide to break their truce and try to get the squirrel toy back. In the yard, Helen takes the toy and asks the dogs what their problem is. Martha says that they don't want to share, but Helen says that if they don't figure something out, she'll give the toy back to T.D., so they promise to find a solution.
Later, Martha decides to offer toys to Skits in return for the squirrel toy, but he refuses all her offers. Thankfully, however, the dogs decide to share the squirrel toy after all, with a game Martha calls "Steal the Squirrel". When she convinces T.D. and Alice to play it, they make up.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: The toy resembles a squirrel with a helmet and goggles.
- Alternate Aesop Interpretation: In-Universe. The moral of the kids' show is to share, but T.D. interprets it as "Girl puppets are selfish", while Alice interprets it as "Boy puppets need someone to tell them to take turns".
- Argument of Contradictions:
- At one point, Martha says, "Is too!" whenever Skits barks.
- When Martha objects to the term "bickering" to describe her and Skits's conflict, since she feels that to qualify as bickering the fight must be irrational, Helen says that the dogs were being irrational, leading to them arguing "Was not!" "Were too!".
- Bait-and-Switch: Martha yells, "Stop it!" when Alice and T.D. argue, making it seem as though she wants them to stop arguing... but it turns out that she was instead telling a flea to stop biting her.
- Dogs Hate Squirrels: Martha doesn't want to play with the toy at first because she hates squirrels.
- Feud Episode: Downplayed. The episode is about trying to resolve arguments between two sets of friends (Martha and Skits, plus T.D. and Alice) but no one ever disowns someone as their friend.
- Girls Have Cooties: Discussed when Alice thinks that the reason T.D. is siding with Skits is because Skits is male and thus he'd be more inclined to side with him than with a female dog.
- Hypocritical Humour: Helen berates her dogs for their arguing, only to get into an argument herself with Martha over whether the dogs' fight was "silly".
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Martha initially doesn't like the toy because it's shaped like a squirrel, which she hates, but when she sees it being thrown, she likes it.
- Insane Troll Logic: T.D. doesn't want Helen to settle his and Alice's argument, since he feels she'd take Alice's side. His reasoning? Helen and Alice are both girls, and Helen is short like Martha (who Alice was siding with). Not only is this bad logic, Helen's not even all that short.
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: When Helen tells her dogs to negotiate something or she'll send the toy back, Martha says, "No, don't do that! I'll negotiate! I swear I'll negotiate! What's 'negotiate'?".
- Lame Comeback: Alice sides with Martha when they argue over which dog is in the wrong because she feels Skits was being a bully and exploiting his size. She says to T.D., "Might does not make right!", to which he responds, "Well, age does not make... I can't think of a word to rhyme with 'age', but you're wrong."
- Only Sane Man: Or in this case, Only Sane Girl. Throughout the episode, Helen acts as the voice of reason and tries to get everyone else to stop bickering and be rational (she does almost start to argue with Martha at one point, but she catches herself before it can get out of hand).
- Jump Rope Blunders: Helen trips over her jump rope at the beginning.
- Show Within a Show: Helen has the dogs watch a "baby show" about two puppet characters learning to share.
- Silent Treatment: According to Helen, Alice and T.D.'s argument led them to stop speaking to each other.
