Nate, his best friend from college, visits him a few weeks later, and they are out on a hiking trail with Gonker, who runs off chasing a fox.

She sets up a control room in their house, calling local newspapers, animal shelters, hospitals, and starts sending out flyers throughout the state.

Seeing Fielding's deteriorating health, his father decides to drive him back home and call off the search and rescue.

During the credits, it was revealed that Gonker never left the Marshalls again and Fielding now lives in Chile giving kayaking tours.

[4] Nell Minow of RogerEbert.com called it "a fine score",[5] while Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote: "The whole thing overflows with charm and warmth, and is awash in beautifully sentimental string passages, backed by appealing woodwind writing, and enlivened with moments of sprightly piano-led effervescence, light comedy, and entertaining action featuring lively guitars and jovial percussion.

[The score] is consistently enjoyable and dramatically engaging throughout ... [and is] by turns sprightly and lively, warmly nostalgic, and playfully comedic.

The website's consensus reads: "Not necessarily mangy but far from fetching, Dog Gone is a treacly melodrama that aims for Very Good Boy only to settle for simply tolerable.