The series focuses on a young boy named Ryder who leads a crew of search and rescue dogs that call themselves the Paw Patrol.

Each dog has a specific set of skills based on emergency services professions, such as a firefighter, a police officer, and an aviation pilot.

[1] The franchise includes a feature film which released in August 2021, followed by a sequel, The Mighty Movie, on September 29, 2023, and a spin-off series based on one of the show's main characters titled Rubble & Crew which premiered in February 2023.

The Paw Patrol's missions include rescuing people, stopping different dangers, and thwarting the devious plots of Mayor Humdinger of Foggy Bottom in later episodes.

[8] Later the same year, the company requested some proposals for a television show based on the transforming toy, and accepted one from Bob the Builder creator Keith Chapman.

[10] The pups' designs underwent major changes after Chapman's pitch; they were very realistic at first, with unique fur and textures based on their breeds, but they were later simplified and made more cartoonish.

The company negotiated a broadcast partnership with Nickelodeon, and the network first announced that it had picked up Paw Patrol at the 2013 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In a 2016 interview with Maclean's Magazine, Guru president Frank Falcone stated that his studio's animators were originally suspicious of the show's "toyetic" concept.

In a May 2016 interview for the Toronto Star, Spin Master president Ben Gadbois stated that his company would continue to introduce additional characters and concepts to increase the franchise's longevity and to expand upon the success of tie-in merchandise.

In the United Kingdom, a British English dub was released in November 2013, using the same scripts as the Canadian-American version with minor changes and shown on Channel 5 within its Milkshake!

On April 6, 2019, TV Tokyo premiered a Japanese dub of the show, starring Megumi Han as Ryder,[26] who is renamed "Kento" (ケント).

[28] Randy Miller of DVD Talk recommended the show, calling it "packed with all the harmless action and cornball jokes that kids can't help but snicker at".

[30] The About Group's Carey Bryson gave the series a mixed review, criticizing its "formulaic" nature but affirming that the "show is not without funny moments".

[15] A research study, commissioned by Sky in March 2016, reported that 16 percent of surveyed British and Irish children named Paw Patrol as their favorite program.

[31] Criticism had been directed toward the show's unequal gender representation because initially the team of dogs was primarily male and included only one female character.

[32] Brandy King of the Center on Media and Child Health "found the gender imbalance immediately noticeable" while watching the program.

[34] In response to these criticisms, the writers added an additional female character named Everest, a Siberian Husky and snow rescue dog, starting in season 2.

[35] The show's mobile app game, Paw Patrol: Air and Sea Adventure, was accused of behaving manipulatively towards younger viewers in a 2018 study by the University of Michigan which focused on app-based advertising techniques.

[36] In a 2020 paper published in the journal Crime, Media, Culture, Paw Patrol is criticized for sending the message that companies are more capable of providing social services than the state.

[37] Author Liam Kennedy argues that the show "encourages complicity in a global capitalist system that (re)produces inequalities and causes environmental harms".

[43] At Nickelodeon's 2016 upfront presentation for future advertisers, Cyma Zarghami named Paw Patrol one of two preschool shows to have significantly helped boost ratings for the network (the other being Blaze and the Monster Machines).

[48] During his opening monologue for the 90th Academy Awards, host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Timothée Chalamet was missing Paw Patrol to attend the ceremony, but "Ryder and his team of pups saved the day, so".

In November 2017, Ronnen Harary confirmed that Spin Master was "currently considering whether to extend the Paw Patrol franchise into feature films at some point in the next 12 to 24 months".

[79] On May 9, 2019, it was confirmed during Spin Master's First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call that an animated theatrical film based on the series, titled Paw Patrol: The Movie was in the works with an August 2021 release date.

Developed by Drakhar Studio and also published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, and Microsoft Windows on November 6, 2020.

Developed by Drakhar Studio and also published by Outright Games, it was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, and Microsoft Windows on August 13, 2021.

[120] Like many children's properties, unauthorized productions and events using copyright infringing costumes featuring the show's characters have attracted the attention of Spin Master and Nickelodeon.

[122] On November 3, 2021, Nickelodeon and Spin Master stated that an untitled spin-off series focusing on one of the main six pups was in development, and was set to premiere in 2023.

Analysts for the National Bank of Canada reported that toys and games based on the show accounted for approximately $245 million U.S. (or 25 percent) of Spin Master's gross product sales for 2015.

[1] Spin Master chairman Anton Rabie noted in August 2016 that the "continuing strength" of Paw Patrol toys, in addition to new acquisitions and movie licenses, made up 40.5 per cent of the firm's second-quarter revenue.