Ep 14. Dog Days

Carrie spends her days at work dealing with one outrageous event after another, from slipping on water in the break room, to getting showered with coffee, to having her lunch stolen by her colleagues. But when she learns that the company is giving away a number of paid vacation days to the employee with the best pitch for a new product, she decides to put her marketing skills to the test. Meanwhile, Doug is having his own frustrations at IPS, where he's been pressed into driving the company truck to make up for his lost deliveries. When he gets a call from Deacon asking him to help out his new friends, who are going out of town and need a temporary home for their dog, Doug jumps at the chance to get a break from work.

But when he and Carrie take the dog, whose name is Rocky, back to their apartment, the situation rapidly goes downhill. At first, Rocky seems like a calm, docile animal, content to lounge around the apartment and let the Heffernans go about their business. But before long, they discover that he's actually a rambunctious, hyperactive dog who has a tendency to chew up anything he can get his teeth on. When they realize that they've lost their brand-new leather couch, Doug and Carrie begin to panic, desperate to find a way to contain the uncontainable Rocky.

Their attempts to keep him in check range from the comical to the ridiculous. Carrie tries to keep him sedated with tranquilizers, but he quickly shakes them off and returns to his destructive ways. Doug buys a fancy dog house, complete with a luxurious bed and a toy bone, and tries to train Rocky to stay inside it. But Rocky has other ideas, and soon the house is in shambles. With each passing hour, Carrie and Doug become more and more exhausted and frazzled, and their apartment begins to resemble a war zone.

As they struggle to contain Rocky's destructive tendencies, Carrie and Doug begin to reflect on their own relationship, and the different ways they cope with stress. Carrie is always looking for an outlet, a way to channel her frustrations and keep them from building up inside her. Doug, on the other hand, is more inclined to shut down and retreat into his own thoughts and feelings. But as they realize that they're both struggling to deal with the chaos surrounding them, they come together and find a way to solve the problem.

In the end, Carrie and Doug are able to find a balance, both in their relationship and in their struggle with Rocky. They come up with a plan to keep him occupied and calm, and with a little creative thinking and a lot of patience, they manage to get through the "dog days" with their sanity (mostly) intact. As the episode ends and they bid farewell to Rocky, they're grateful for the lesson they've learned: that even when life seems like a wild and uncontrollable mess, they're stronger together than they are apart.