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 US and October 13, 2009 in Canada. It is in this book, where several characters have taken a few changes.

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 do activities that involve Sport, 'Mrs. Jefferson now sees Greg as a bad influence, Susan now hates Greg interest in 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 infuritated with Greg's complaints about the quality of service, 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. Greg and Rowley end up in some difficulties in operating. Before the two boys start, Greg states that Rowley should clear it for him, whilst Greg starts working on his "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, albeit, he struggles over the areas covered in dog poo. Greg finishes the clearing of the lawn, but Mrs. Canfield finds the service 'lousy' and refuses to pay Greg, and Greg gets even 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 isn't at home.

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 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, however is frustrated that his relatives have not given him a simple gift that he wanted. 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 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 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. Manny, Rodrick and Greg try to give the dog a legitimate name, but Susan names the dog "Sweetheart" and shortens to "Sweetie." Even though Greg wanted a dog for a long time, he quickly becomes annoyed at his decision for choosing Sweetie, who drools on his pillow, sleeps on his bed, interrupts his time in the bathroom and won't stop barking at the Television. 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.

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's mother 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, reading books, 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 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 fed up with Rowley, who now sees Rowley as spoilt character. Before the Jefferson's and Greg are about to leave, Greg decides to spend a little longer at the Boardwalk, where he can play Video Games at the arcade. After his gameplay, Greg does cause trouble, such as a trick ("to make the cash last longer'). Mr. Jefferson, is extremely mad at the folly Greg has made at the boardwalk and sends Greg 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 receiving him for a four hour journey, though Greg's mom does not care about what happened, and says that Greg was doing 'Horseplay', even admitting that Greg and Rowley are together, even though they are not. 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 somewhere. 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. Greg, however, notices that the handwriting is Rodrick's, but is uncertain whether this is actually going to happen. 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 and therefore ending "Father-To-Son" bonding activities. Rowley and Greg go to a video game competition, in which Greg is desperate to win $1,000,000, but ultimately fails, since Rowley batters Greg's hand with a Mallet, who tried to scare Rowley with a Muddy Hand, and Rowley chooses his reward for Chocolate 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 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, 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.