Japanese Title: Police Dog Gardie
Original Airdate: July 16th, 1998
US Airdate: April 10th, 1999
The one where... We see what an Officer Jenny has to go through.
Ash enrolls Pikachu in a training school for police Growlithe. But the course is tougher than he imagined, for himself and for Pikachu. Ash wants Pikachu to be as tough as Kanto's finest, but Pikachu is Pika-pooped. At that moment, Team Rocket floods the schoolground with helium gas, and everyone's voices become squeaky. Jessie and James use a special voice-changing megaphone to sound like Officer Jenny, and command the Growlithe to follow them. They almost get away with it, too, but Pikachu is still able to recognize the real Ash and the Growlithe remember their special bond with the real Officer Jenny, who raised them and trained them. The Growlithe chase off Team Rocket, and Ash realizes that Pikachu doesn't need to be a police Pokémon—it's fine just the way it is.
Tropes in this episode:
- Furry Reminder: Since Growlithe is a puppy Pokémon, and dogs and cats are natural enemies, Meowth is scared of them.
- Helium Speech: Team Rocket uses a gas to give this to everyone so that the Growlithes don't recognize Officer Jenny's voice. Unfortunately for them, it fails to make Pikachu not recognize Ash.
- Lost in Translation: The gas tank that makes all the Growlithe lose their sense of smell having a picture of Gloom on it translates well. Not so much with the voice-changing tank, which has a picture of Psyduck on it. In the original Japanese, Psyduck has a very high-pitched voice, but in the English dub, it is not reflected.
- Pet Positive Identification: Invoked by Team Rocket. The voice changing device doesn't work on Pikachu and it goes over to the real Ash. This inspires Officer Jenny to provoke her Growlithe to get close enough to her and remember the bond they grew with her over training.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Jigglypuff enters in the middle of a confrontation, and exits a few notes into its song after realizing it's facing down an angry pack of Growlithe.
- Meowth bolts once the Growlithe recognizes Officer Jenny. Jessie and James are reluctant to give up but chase Meowth once he begins to leave.
- Shout-Out: Meowth notes his Helium Speech sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
- Training from Hell: Ash and Pikachu spend a day going through the same training as Jenny and Growlithe. They don't handle it very well.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The episode concludes with a shot of Jigglypuff coming upon the voice-changing megaphone looking mischievously at it. This is not elaborated on in any future episode.
