Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Daysis the 4th book in the Wimpy Kid Series written by Jeff Kinney. It was released on October 12, 2009 in the US and October 13, 2009 in Canada. It is in this book, where several characters have taken a few changes and where more is revealed about various people's personalities. Rowley is losing patience with Greg's schemes and has abandoned an interest in video games, Manny no longer calls Greg 'Bubby' or 'Ploopy', Frank doesn't take any interest in making Greg manly anymore, Mrs. Jefferson now sees Greg as a bad influence, and Susan now shuns video games.

Plot
The story begins with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson at the latter's country club, but within a few weeks, Rowley's dad becomes annoyed with all of Greg's complaints and bans him from the country club. The beach trip that they've planned is also cancelled due to lack of money, so Greg resorts to going to the town pool.

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 become scared 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. The reading program, however, is put to a stop when Mr. Jefferson arrives with a huge $83 bill that Greg and Rowley spent at the country club, and he forces the boys to pay it off. Greg attempts to pay back the bill by mowing lawns, and their first customer is Mrs. Canfield. This backfires, as Rowley doesn't like Greg's way of Rowley clearing the lawn and Greg being lazy by collecting the money and leaves. Greg clears the lawn, but Mrs. Canfield finds his service 'lousy' and refuses to pay Greg. Greg, however tries to find other ways and tries to contact Rowley about them, but isn't at home.

After Greg's Fight, Greg's mother quickly learns about the conflict and attempts to make Greg happy. This, however does not please Greg, as his mother invites Fregley over, a person Greg isn't fond of and that his mom is encouraging father-to-son bonding, something that displeases Greg even more. 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 also gets a "Ladybug" cell phone but it is far from what he expected. Greg goes to the next room to cut the cake, but becomes even more disappointed when Uncle Joe's dog eats his cake, 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 intially 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 labeled as "aggressive." Manny picks out fish food, but eats half the container. When the family goes to the water park, Greg discovers that Rodrick's fish has eaten his a few days later.

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, Grandpa tells of how his dog ran away to a butterfly farm. Greg's grandfather reveals that he had actually run the dog over while parking his car in the Garage, when he thought it was Frank's skateboard. Greg's father takes off in disgust, and then buys a dog which Susan names "Sweetheart" and shortens to "Sweetie." Even though Greg wanted a dog for a long time, he has a change of heart and quickly becomes annoyed at Sweetie, who drools on his pillow, sleeps on his bed, and won't stop barking at the Television.

A Few months Later, after Greg enters a conflict at the Town Pool with Manny in the changing rooms, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson invite Greg to go to the beach with them, from the supermarket, unaware of the tense relationship between Greg and Rowley. Greg's mother reluctantly pushes Greg to go along, without his permission, even though Greg is still upset with Rowley over the Lawn Business. Greg, however is not used to how close the Jeffersons are to each other, in ways such as sharing one ice cream cone and playing charades, and especially, he is even upset with how he has to spend a week without a computer or any video games and having to spend time at a log cabin. Greg, however does manage to go to the Cranium Shaker. Greg does cause trouble over the next few days, such as Rodrick's dollar trick to make the cash last longer, and getting Rowley into trouble, and gets sent home two days early after he snaps a rubber band at Rowley (who is convinced that Greg "burned him").

Frank is mad at Greg for recieving him for a four hour journey, though Greg's mom doesn't care about that, and says that Greg was doing 'Horseplay'. She 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 he is insecure around him. Rodrick tells Greg that his father is going to sell him, as he shows him clues in his Father's planner, that by August 20, he will be sold. He calls the police before he realizes that his father was actually talking about giving Sweetie away to Grandma, but then Frank is very disgusted with Greg's actions and sends him back home, never to speak with him again. After the conflict, Rowley and Greg go to a video game competition, in which Greg is desperate to win $1,000,000, but ultimately fails, and Rowley is rewarded some raisins.

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 and his father hasn't spoken to him yet. Despite Greg's father being mad at Greg, they find a common ground through mutual dislike for a newspaper comic strip, where their relations improve. Greg realizing that summer is over when he sees a photo album titled "Best Summer Ever!" It is a horrible record of that summer, but Greg writes that the person who had taken the pictures told the story.