A Dog's Purpose

The woman pours cool water on Toby, and he quickly feels more energized. She takes Toby to her home where he meets his first child, an eight-year-old boy named Ethan. Ethan is excited to see Toby and promises his mother that he will take good care of him. Later, when the boy’s father comes home, he again promises to care for Toby. The family feeds Toby and introduces him to their cat, Smokey. Smokey isn’t interested in playing with Toby. Ethan gives Toby the name Bailey and begins to teach him to use the bathroom outside, but Bailey is confused by Ethan’s methods and struggles to learn. Ethan also introduces Bailey to the neighborhood, including a girl named Chelsea who has a dog named Marshmallow.

Ethan teaches Bailey tricks, such as how to sit, speak, and go out the dog door. One morning, things change as Ethan locks Bailey in the garage. Ethan and Mom leave the home, causing Bailey a great deal of confusion. When Ethan doesn’t come right back, Bailey grows bored and tears open a bag of clothing, uses the bathroom in the garage, and gets into the garbage. When Ethan comes home, he and Mom call Bailey a bad dog, but he doesn’t understand what he did wrong. When Dad comes home, he and Ethan set up a doghouse. At bedtime, Ethan tells Bailey he has to stay in the garage instead of going to bed with him. Bailey barks and whimpers. Ethan sneaks down and sleeps with Bailey.

The next morning, Bailey is perplexed to be locked in the garage again. He also can’t get into the trash because the lid no longer pops off when he tips it over. After a while, Bailey inspects the dog door and discovers he can come and go as he pleases. Bailey also decides he prefers to go to the bathroom outside.

A new family arrives in the neighborhood. Ethan becomes friends with one of the boys, Todd, but their friendship cools when Todd shows a reckless side while playing with fireworks. Sometime later, Bailey is wandering the neighborhood alone because the gate was not fastened properly, and Todd finds him. Bailey doesn’t trust him but obeys when Todd calls to him.

Todd takes Bailey to his home where Todd’s sister, Linda, becomes visibly upset at the sight of Bailey. Todd attempts to put modeling glue on Bailey. At that moment, Bailey hears Ethan in the street calling for him. Bailey barks. Todd leaves Bailey alone in his room, allowing Linda to coax Bailey out of Todd’s room. Bailey runs out of the house and finds Ethan and Mom down the street.

A few weeks later, Dad and Ethan have Bailey fixed. Not long after this, school gets out and Bailey goes to a farm with Ethan and Mom. Bailey meets Grandma and Grandpa, as well as ducks and a horse named Flare. Bailey goes fishing and exploring with Ethan. On two occasions, Bailey attempts to befriend a skunk, leading to tomato juice baths. When Ethan calls Bailey stupid, Grandpa corrects him, instructing him to call him “doodle dog” instead. This becomes a sort of nickname for Bailey. One day toward the end of summer, Ethan and Bailey are fishing when Ethan falls into the water. Bailey immediately jumps in after him.

Bailey believes Ethan is drowning and drags him back to the surface of the water only to be yelled at because Ethan was not drowning but attempting to rescue his fishing rod. Later, Ethan runs an experiment to show Grandpa how Bailey is willing to save him. Not long after this, the family packs and returns to their own house. Bailey is unhappy when school resumes and he is once again locked in the garage. Finding this unfair, Bailey uses his first mother’s trick to get into the house. Bailey makes a mess going through the trash, eating Smokey’s food, and eating the things Smokey knocks out of the cabinets for him. Bailey is upset when Mom and Ethan come home and blame Bailey solely for the mess even though Smokey helped.

Over the next few summers, Bailey continues to go to the farm with Ethan and Mom. One summer, Ethan invents the flip, a Frisbee-like object he made from an old football that he hopes will fly longer distances; it doesn’t work. That same summer, Hannah, a girl from a neighboring farm, comes to visit with some brownies for the family. Bailey notices Ethan’s odd reaction to Hannah but doesn’t understand it.

One afternoon, Mom and the grandparents pack to go on a trip. They leave Ethan and Bailey at the house. Bailey is excited because Ethan feeds him chicken skin and allows him to lay on Grandpa’s chair. However, Bailey is nervous when Ethan opens the gun safe without Grandpa.

Ethan saddles Flare even though he isn’t allowed to ride the horse outside of the paddock. They go for a ride in the hills, with Bailey following. Bailey sees a snake and tries to warn Ethan, but Ethan continues forward. The snake scares Flare and he bucks Ethan off his back. Ethan chases the horse but can’t catch him, crying when he realizes they are now lost. Ethan and Bailey walk until it gets dark. Ethan makes a bed of pine needles. Bailey lays close to Ethan to keep him warm. They walk again the next day, but Ethan begins to get tired. Ethan cries again. The following day, they find a stream and Ethan begins to follow it, growing frustrated when it dips into the woods again. They enter a bog and Ethan nearly gives up, but Bailey barks until Ethan begins moving again. Night is descending again when Bailey catches the scent of men. He urges Ethan along until they approach a bridge. Ethan becomes frightened when they see a man on the bridge, but the man, a policeman, calls to Ethan by name.

The policeman takes Ethan to the hospital, but Bailey isn’t allowed to go inside. Instead, Grandpa takes him to a place where someone gives them sandwiches that they eat in the car. That night is the first night Bailey ever spends without Ethan. When Ethan returns home, Bailey is surprised when everyone calls him a bad boy but showers him with affection. A few days later, the family returns home. At home, Bailey reacquaints himself with Marshmallow. However, Marshmallow disappears a short time later. Bailey goes with Ethan to look for her and catches her scent on Todd but doesn’t understand why. Marshmallow is never found, and Chelsea eventually gets a new puppy named Duchess, with whom Bailey becomes friends.

The children in the neighborhood begin building go-carts. When the go-carts are finished, the neighborhood children gather at the top of a hill to have a race. Todd cheats by allowing his brother, Drake, to give him a push. Bailey chases after Ethan who is in second place behind Todd. It looks like so much fun that Bailey decides to jump onto the cart with Ethan, giving it the push Ethan needs to win. Todd and Drake accuse Ethan of cheating, but the other children declare Ethan the winner. Todd and Ethan fight, but Ethan quickly gets the better of Todd. Drake threatens Ethan, but the other children make him back off. That night, someone throws a rock through the living room window at Ethan’s house. Bailey can smell Todd on it.

A couple years later, Smokey gets sick and dies. The family buries him in the backyard. Ethan begins playing football, and Bailey goes to watch his games with Mom on Fridays. After missing the annual trip to the farm for two years, Mom, Ethan, and Bailey go back. Hannah begins coming around, and she and Ethan spend more time together. Hannah cries when Mom, Ethan, and Bailey return home.

Hannah comes to see Ethan and takes Bailey to see Ethan play football. Todd comes over to speak to Hannah, trying to convince her to go to a party with him. When she refuses, Todd says that Ethan has been dating another girl, Michele Underwood. Hannah confronts Ethan after the game, and he denies even knowing a girl named Michele. Hannah believes Ethan, and they are happy when they go back to the house. That night, while everyone is sleeping, Bailey goes outside and finds a piece of meat in the yard. The meat has a strange smell and tastes bitter. Bailey carries it to the back porch, wondering why the meat smells like Todd.

Hannah comes back around Christmas. One afternoon, Ethan and Hannah go sledding. They run into Todd, and Hannah recognizes him as the one who told her Ethan was dating Michele. Ethan confronts Todd, who refuses to address the accusation. Hannah goes home a few days later. After a heavy snowfall, Bailey gets out of the yard due to a snow drift that makes a natural bridge over the fence. After exploring the neighborhood, Bailey returns home and sees Todd come out of the house, pouring some liquid on the floor, around the porch, and on the bushes. Todd lights a piece of paper and tosses it into the house. Bailey, sensing danger for his family, attacks Todd. Bailey bites Todd’s ankle, but Todd manages to get away and run home. Mom and Dad come out of the house and begin screaming Ethan’s name. Bailey can’t get back into the yard and can’t find another way into the house. He watches helplessly, sensing the fear coming off the parents.

Ethan breaks a window and jumps, getting hung up on something and landing in the burning bushes. Dad pulls Ethan free of the bushes, but he’s burned and has a broken leg. Ethan, Mom, and Dad are taken away, leaving Bailey with Chelsea’s mother. Chelsea’s mother watches as the firefighters pour water on the house and the police look around. Chelsea’s mother moves closer when one of the cops finds a tennis shoe. There’s blood on it and on the ground. Chelsea’s mother also finds blood on Bailey. The policewoman realizes that Bailey likely attacked the arsonist. The police follow the blood trail and find Todd. Bailey stays with Chelsea and her mother, but Mom comes to visit. Bailey is anxious because he can smell Ethan on Mom but doesn’t know where he is. Days after the fire, Bailey moves into an apartment with Mom, but Bailey continues to wonder where Ethan is.

One day, Ethan comes home. He has crutches that help him walk and scars on his face. Although he’s happy to have Ethan back, Bailey can sense a difference inside of him. Ethan begins going to school again. That summer, they go to the farm. Hannah is there, and there is some initial awkwardness between her and Ethan, but then things return to normal. Ethan takes Bailey with him each morning to run a paper route, telling Bailey that he has to make money because his athletic scholarship is gone now. Grandma talks Mom into allowing Ethan to finish high school at the farm. Bailey is initially confused when Mom leaves without him and Ethan but is content to stay on the farm. Mom and Dad come to visit during Christmas. At the end of the following summer, Ethan packs his things and packs the car, but when Bailey tries to get in, Ethan tells him he has to stay.

Bailey is not happy to be left behind when Ethan leaves but is content to remain on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma. Ethan comes home during the holidays, and he and Bailey visit Hannah often. Ethan and Hannah argue the next summer, and Hannah stops coming to the farm. About that time, Mom moves onto the farm and throws her wedding ring into the pond.

As time passes, Bailey fills his days by going to work with Mom and doing chores with Grandpa, which mostly consists of taking naps in the hay. Grandpa brings a new animal to the farm, a donkey named Jasper. Bailey doesn’t find Jasper as annoying as Flare. He begins to struggle to eat, feeling a pain in his belly. Mom and Grandpa take Bailey to the clean place with the metal table (a veterinarian’s). Mom cries, but a kind man gives Bailey a jab that is followed by relief from his pain. Bailey recognizes that he is dying. He understands his purpose was to make Ethan happy and is sad that he might make him sad with his death. Mom, Grandpa, and Grandma accompany Bailey, and Ethan arrives shortly afterward. Bailey is happy to see Ethan, but his pain worsens. The kind man gives Bailey another jab, and he floats away like when he played rescue with Ethan.