Puttin' on the Dog

Puttin' on the Dog is a 1944 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 16th Tom and Jerry Short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was released in theatres on 28 October 1944, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The cartoon was animated by Pete Burness, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse, and the music was composed by Scott Bradley. The cartoon revolves around Tom's attempts to disguise himself as a dog in order to get his hands on Jerry who is hiding from him in a dog pound.

Plot
Tom chases Jerry until they run into a dog pound. The dogs angrily expel Tom. Jerry, however, is sitting on Spike's back, and taunts Tom. Tom notices a fake dog with a head attached near a pet shop. Tom sneaks off and steals the head. He now walks and crawls like a dog until he reaches a lamppost. He puts the head to the side, and peeks at the dog pound. Seeing it's all clear, Tom sneaks in, but loses the head in the process. He attempts to pull it out when Spike notices him. Tom puts himself back under the head and barks. Spike turns and walks away.

Tom successfully frees the head and runs to the center of the pound to keep lookout. Jerry sneaks up behind him and imitates barking. Tom is startled out of his wits and tries to claw his way through a wall until he figures out it's Jerry. Jerry continues imitating a dog, then runs away. Tom chases after him and looks under various dogs to find the mouse, and then spots him in a bone-hat. Tom bolts after him, and Jerry hides. Convinced that the end of the dog bone nearby is Jerry in disguise, Tom grabs it and is met by an angry Spike. As Spike chomps down, Tom causes Spike to swallow his bone and hides underneath a St. Bernard. The big dog goes to sleep and Tom pops out from under it - without the dog head. Tom digs back under the St. Bernard, waking it up. Tom is hanging from the collar. Fortunately, the St. Bernard notices nothing. Tom then attaches the head to his rear and pops out again, waking the dog again. The St. Bernard sees Tom sans head, but Tom switches ends and leaves. Tom hides in a barrel, but soon notices that Jerry is doing the same. He breaks open the barrel and chases Jerry until Jerry hides in another dog's fur. Jerry taunts him by swimming in the fur and gets Tom to dive in. This wakes up the dog and he shakes both cat and mouse out of his fur, apparently confused. As the chase resumes, Jerry stops, trips Tom, and gains the dog head for himself. Spike comes around the corner and briefly sees Tom's real head, but Tom quickly hides it. Jerry leaves and Tom, pretending to have no head, waves and follows after him. Scared out of his wits by this unholy apparition, Spike emits a terrified girl-like shriek which is exactly the same from the 1942 film Fraidy Cat.

Tom waddles after his "head", but fails to spot the pole in his way and bumps into it, returning to normal. Seeing dog ears like the ones on the dog head in a nearby barrel, Tom grabs them and is met with an angry yellow dog. Tom ties up his mouth with his own collar and runs away. Tom sees Jerry/head follow the path close to him and prepares to seize him; unfortunately, Spike is also coming around the corner. Tom grabs Spike and tries to fit him over his head. When he can't move after a few steps, Tom realizes something is up and sees the dog chomping at him. Tom hides behind a wall and soon spots Jerry/head. In his path, though, is a long dachshund dog akin to a train stop. The dog apparently has two heads...until Jerry reveals himself and sticks his tongue out at Tom, only to run into the dog's house. Jerry dashes off and Tom traps him underneath the head, but soon realizes that's his means of disguise and sticks it over his head just as Spike arrives. Jerry raises the head and turns the head in an effort to expose Tom until Spike lifts the head himself, whereupon Tom covers all of himself with the head and waddles off.

Tom lifts the head and whacks himself in an effort to flatten Jerry, but causes a bump on his head. Because of this, Tom can no longer hide himself when Spike comes around, and finally sees through Tom's disguise. Jerry holds up a note stating "YES STUPID IT'S A CAT" and the jig is up. Spike lets out an angry massive buffalo roar. Tom panics and digs a hole, but Spike digs him up with his large jaws. The chase wakes up all the other dogs, who join the chase themselves, as they are now on the warpath against Tom. He's chased to the top of a very high pole, with all the dogs barking at him. Jerry, now donning the dog head, also starts barking at Tom. The others stop barking as they now hear Jerry. He loses the head, but retrieves it, and continues barking at Tom while the cartoon ends.

Availability
DVD
 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 3
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 2, Disc One
 * Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume One, Disc One