Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is the 4th book in the Wimpy Kid Series written by Jeff Kinney. It was released on October 12, 2009 in the USA and October 13, 2009 in Canada. Susan Heffley is the main antagonist of the book.

June
The story begins with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson at the latter's country club, but within a few weeks, Rowley's dad becomes sick of Greg's constructive criticism about the quality of service of the club and bans him from entering the club with Rowley. The beach trip that they've planned is also canceled due to the lack of money, and so Greg's family resorts to going to the town pool but he dislikes it because of large, hairy men soaping in the showers.

Mom takes Greg to get a haircut, but she takes him to Bombshells Beauty Salon, where Mom gets her hair done. While he's there, he reads a tabloid and remembers that Gramma reads tabloids. One tabloid she read said cordless phones erase the memory of the elderly, so she didn't answer her phone, and Mom got worried and came to her house. Gramma said the information was from the New York Times. Greg fishes a tabloid out the trash can and learned North America will be underwater in two months, so that takes the pressure out of him to do well at school.

The barber also tells Greg the town gossip. Mom picks him up in the middle of the story of Mr. Peppers and his wife who was twenty years younger than him.

Later, Greg and Rowley have a sleepover together, and watch a horror movie obtained from Greg's older brother, Rodrick. After the movie, Greg and Rowley soon became scared and paranoid of a muddy hand that might strangle them, which was in the movie. Unfortunately for Greg, his mom finds out about the movie and starts a reading club in which he is the only participant after several weeks. People were into this so they bring their favorite book. However, Mom confisicated all the books and gave them "classic" books instead because the books they brought aren't actually "real books". Afterward, all the guys left the club until there's only one member left: Greg. The reading program, however, is put to a stop when Mr. Jefferson arrives with a $84 bill that Greg and Rowley spent on drinks at the country club, and he forces the two to pay it off. Greg, at first hand attempts to pay back the bill by mowing lawns, and their first customer is Mrs. Canfield. Greg and Rowley end up in some difficulties in operating, in ways such as the gasoline spilling over. Before the two boys start, Greg states that Rowley should clear it for him, whilst Greg starts working on his so-called "business plan". Rowley however, gets quickly annoyed at the idea, and states that Greg should help him clear the lawn too. Greg tries to find a chance to manipulate Rowley, but then Rowley, unable to tolerate Greg's way of working, decides to leave. Greg clears the lawn individually, although he struggles over the areas covered in dog poop. Greg finishes the clearing of the lawn, but Mrs. Canfield finds the service "lousy" and refuses to pay Greg, and Greg gets frustrated that Mrs. Canfield won't even drive him home. Greg, tries to find other ways to pay that the bill, and tries to contact Rowley about them, but Rowley was at the movies with his father, and Greg became very annoyed that Rowley did not tell him he was going to take the day off.

After Greg's fight, Greg's mother quickly gets to know about the conflict and attempts to make Greg happy. This, however does not please Greg, as his mother tries to make Greg happy in ways such as inviting Fregley over, a person Greg isn't fond of at all, and that his mom is encouraging father-to-son bonding, something that displeases Greg even more. Mom takes Greg to the Bombshells Beauty Salon again, and she hears him and Rowley had a falling-out. The barber says that he's seen Rowley and his father together playing tennis and stuff like that. The last time Greg and his dad had a father-son bonding, it ended up with Greg pulling Dad out of a creek.

For Greg's birthday, all of his relatives come over. Unfortunately, his mom confiscates Greg's birthday money to pay off the $83 bill for Rowley's father. Greg is also frustrated that his relatives have not given him a single gift that he wanted and received all gifts he loathes. Greg also gets a "Ladybug" cell phone but it is far from what he expected, as he views the Ladybug cellphone as junk and that it is not a real cellphone, in which the Ladybug only allows him to call home and 911. Greg goes to the next room to cut the cake, but becomes even more upset when Uncle Joe's dog eats his cake and vomits it in front of Greg, thus ruining his birthday. After Greg's birthday, Greg's mother allows Rodrick and Greg to each get a fish for a pet, which Greg initially believes that his mother wanted to make him feel a bit better after Uncle Joe's dog ate Greg's cake. Greg picks out an angelfish and Rodrick decides on a fish, because it is labeled "aggressive." Manny picks out fish food, but eats half the container before they get home. When the family goes to the water park, It began to rain and then they leave. Mom had a headache so she layed down. When they got to the Gas Station, Mom left the car and the Heffleys forgot about her until they came home. After sone thinking, they went back to the gas station where they stopped for gas, where Mom was there. Afterward, Rodrick's aggressive fish eaten Greg's angel fish.

The next day is Father's Day, so the Heffleys visit Leisure Towers to spend the day with Greg's grandfather, so that Greg wouldn't feel bad about his dead fish. There, Frank tells of how his dog named Nutty ran away to a butterfly farm. Greg's grandfather reveals that he had actually accidentally ran over the dog while parking his car in the garage, when he thought it was Frank's skateboard. Greg's father takes off in extreme disgust, and then buys a dog. Manny, Rodrick and Greg try to give the dog a legit name, but Susan names the dog "Sweetheart" and shortens to "Sweetie.", much to the boys dismay, as Greg views that the dog is actually male not female. Dad sends Rodrick to the mall to buy a dog bowl with printed Sweetie's name on it but Rodrick comes back with Sweetie's name misspelled "Sweaty". Even though Greg wanted a dog for a long time, he quickly becomes annoyed at Sweetie, who drools on his pillow, sleeps on his bed, interrupts his privacy time in the bathroom and won't stop barking at the television unless a certain advertisment comes on.

July
Later on, Greg enters a conflict at the Town Pool with Manny in the changing rooms, tries to woo Heather Hills, but his chance to impress Heather fails...

August
After the situation at the Pool, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson invite Greg to go to the beach with them, unaware of the tense relationship between Greg and Rowley. Greg, however is not used to how close the Jeffersons are to each other, in ways such as sharing one ice cream cone, reading books, and playing charades, and especially, he is even upset with how he has to spend a week without a computer, TV or any video games and having to spend time at a log cabin. Greg tries to find ways to escape the Jeffersons, by secretly writing an e-mail to his mother, but this backfires as the e-mail account turns out to be Mr. Jefferson's. Later on, the Jefferson's take the boys to the boardwalk, where Greg goes on the Cranium Shaker, and goes to experience his personal freedom. Even though Greg has been long friends with Rowley, he quickly becomes gobsmacked at Rowley, who now sees Rowley as spoiled character. Before the Jefferson's and Greg are about to leave, Greg decides to spend more time at the boardwalk, and asks Mr. Jefferson for $20; Mr. Jefferson is only willing to give him $1 due to his mistrust in Greg. Greg then shows Rowley the top score at the arcade that he set a few years ago in an attempt to prove to him that he needs to earn things himself rather than be given them. However, Greg realizes that the next person below him was unable to beat his score, and through his nickname as "is an idiot," essentially defaces Greg to anyone that sees the screen. Greg attempts to unplug the video game system, but gives up when he finds out that high scores are not erased in this manner. To spend his one dollar, he plays a boardwalk trick to "make the cash last longer," although it backfires in his face; Mr. Jefferson gets angry at the fact that Greg and Rowley did not meet back at the car in time and sends the two boys to bed early as a punishment, even though it wasn't dark. Greg saw Rowley was disappointed, and attempts to lighten the mood by giving Rowley a static shock. Rowley gets him back, and due to Greg's view on other people "one-" him, he grabs Rowley's boppy balloon and lets it rip onto Rowley's arm. Rowley screams, which draws his parents' attention. Rowley's parents decide that Greg should no longer be around with Rowley and will have to move and forces him to go home two days early.

Frank is mad at Greg for wasting four hours due to the long car drive, though Greg's mom says that the event was just "horseplay" and that Rowley and Greg are still friends, devoid of the fact that their friendship is slowly slipping. Then a newspaper article show that Bob Post's Son will take the pen and continues doing "Li'l Cutie." Susan convinces Frank to take Greg to a baseball game, even though Greg is unaware of this. His father tries to keep it a secret, but Greg overhears his father talking about getting rid of someone, and Greg believes that his father is trying to "ship" Greg off to somewhere. Rodrick tells Greg that his father is going to sell him, as he shows him clues in his father's planner, on August 22, he will be sold. Greg, however, notices that the awful handwriting is Rodrick's, but is uncertain whether this is actually going to happen as Greg knows his dad is very unpredictable. He calls the police using his Ladybug when he deduces that his dad is taking him to an orphanage; he realizes that his father was actually talking about giving Sweetie away to Grandma, and was going to take Greg to a baseball game. Due to a long talk with the police, Frank is no longer in the mood to watch a baseball game and gave the two cops the tickets, since he becomes extremely disgusted with Greg's actions and takes Greg home without a word.

The book comes to a close with Greg's video game "championship." Greg, in one last attempt to idiotically manipulate Rowley, calls him and tells him to come to the championship, promising that there will be prizes. Rowley is initially reluctant, as he still believes that Greg is a manipulator of electricity, and refuses to go unless Greg does not use his electric powers against him. Greg "promises" not to use them and he and Rowley camp out in front of the Game Hut. Greg decided to scare Rowley by pretending that his chocolate-covered hand was the Muddy Hand. Greg doesn't expect Rowley to be awake, but immediately realizes his mistake when Rowley foolishly hammers the "muddy hand," ruining Greg's thumb and his ability to play video games. Greg ends up losing pathetically due to his injury, and Rowley walks away with the alternative grand prize of a "giant box of chocolate-covered raisins." Greg became very angry for Rowley hammering his hand and their friendship breaks up.

The book ends with Greg stating that his summer would have been better had he stayed in the house, and also claims that Rowley was never seen by him since Rowley beat Greg in the competition, and his father hasn't spoken to him yet since Greg almost got him arrested. Despite Greg's father being mad at Greg, they find a common ground through mutual dislike for a newspaper comic strip, in which the writer had passed down to his son and made the comic much even worse. Greg realizing that summer is over when he sees a photo album titled "Best Summer Ever!" It is a horrible and a very inaccurate record of that summer, but Greg writes that the person who had taken the pictures told the story. How many times does this family get in trouble? Guess!

Trivia

 * Even though Greg receives a "Ladybug" cellphone in this book, he reveals he didn't bring it to school in The Ugly Truth. This implies Frank may have confiscated it due to the fact that Greg nearly had him arrested due to calling the police, lost it at some point, is not allowed to bring it to school, simply left it to avoid being humiliated or forgot about it.
 * Trista eventually made a cameo at the beginning of the book.
 * In the previous book when Greg and Rowley went outside, it is revealed Trista is from New Mexico, and just moved in from the neighborhood.
 * On Greg's gramma's lawn mower instructions were written in Spanish.
 * Greg's gramma referred to Rodrick Rules, in which they raked leaves and dead grass was left all over her front yard.
 * Susan tries to make the summer fun for Greg, but ends up ruining it instead.
 * When Susan makes a "Reading is Fun" club  Greg brings the book "Magick and Monsters:Dark Realms Volume 9 Shadowdoom" and Susan doesn't like the way it portrays women on the cover. From what Greg can remember there aren't any women in the book.
 * In the online version,when Greg and Rowley were sleeping at log cabin. Rowleys mouth was closed(look at the picture below)
 * There's going to be a 2012 summer film based upon the book and The Last Straw.
 * In one UK shipping soon after the release, there was an error with the book - the cover was flipped, so that if the cover was the right way up, the pages inside would read upside down.
 * Rodrick lies to Greg about being shipped away because Dad is mad about the Rowley thing. What really happen is that Rodrick goes downstairs and wrote on August 22 saying "Sell Greg." He then leaves and go to  Greg's room and tell what is going to happen.
 * Greg best friend Rowley becomes a ex-best friend in the end of this book. This continues in the Ugly Truth until Greg become best friend again.
 * Date and time is incorrect in this book. June lasts for about six weeks.
 * Presumably, Greg has his "big fight" with Rowley after the log cabin holiday. This is hinted as towards the end of this book, they are on uneasy terms, meaning they already had their big fight, although the actual fight isn't mentioned until The Ugly Truth.
 * Rodrick's trick of selling Greg may have been done because it would scare Greg quite a lot, due to the events in The Last Straw.

References to the date
In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, the actual date of events isn't usually given, as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is meant to be timeless and could have happened at any time. Here are dates that are mentioned in the book:
 * July 4 - Greg gives his account on what happened on his July 4 from the next day.
 * August 22 - This date is seen in Greg's father's planner as the date he will "sell Greg". It turns out to have been a basketball match and the selling Greg was a ruse by Rodrick.