Chapter 1 opens with a splash panel of Dog Man surfing. The story begins with a new couch being delivered to the chief of police’s office. He’s excited to “be the first one to sit on it” (14) but finds that Officer Knight and Greg the Dog are already sleeping on it when he walks into the room. He berates them for being “the worst cops ever” (16), and they leave feeling dejected. Officer Knight tells Greg that he wishes they could impress the chief with an act of heroism.

Meanwhile, Petey spies on Knight and Greg from afar. He tells his butler that the two are no threat to him: “Officer Knight is a tough cop…but he ain’t got no brains! And Greg the Dog is smart…but his body is his weakness!” (17-18). The butler points out that Greg and Knight could work together, so Petey plants a bomb nearby. Greg and Knight find it, and it explodes; they are both rushed to the hospital.

In a scene that is played for laughs, the doctor tells Greg that his “body is dying” and informs Knight, “Your head is dying too, cop” (21). To save their lives, the medical team sews Greg’s head to Knight’s body, thus creating Dog Man.