When Caleb is a young boy, his father raises German Shepard puppies to be hunting dogs. When he's around 7 or 8, he helps his dad dock their tails—but when his dad asks him to cut one on his own, he can't do it all in one snip. They can't sell that puppy, so they keep it along with one other: Shorty and Ranger. After a move to California, Caleb's dad makes a bad investment—putting himself in millions of dollars of debt—and then leaves Caleb's mom, also leaving behind Shorty and Ranger. One afternoon, when Caleb is fifteen, his mom tells him they have to bring Shorty and Ranger to the shelter because his dad hasn't responded to her messages about them and they can't take care of them. Knowing the dogs will be put down at the shelter, Caleb suggests they bring them to the beach for a few hours of happiness. His mom, already drunk, drives them to the beach. There, the dogs splash and run around. A man with a metal detector stops to pet the dogs and strikes up a conversation with his mom. She is flirting with the man and tells him she could walk on her hands in college. Caleb thinks she's lying and gets upset, calls them man an idiot, and asks him to leave. Once he does, his mother lies back in the sand exhausted and drunk. Once she's asleep, Caleb steals the car keys, throws the dogs in the back and drives to his dad's new apartment nearby. Outside the apartment, he sees a "Beware! Dog" sign in the neighbor's window. Caleb brings the dogs inside the apartment, but his dad is on edge. His new girlfriend introduces herself. After a while, his dad insists he can't keep the dogs because their apartment doesn't allow pets. Caleb drives back to the beach and wakes up his mom. He asks about her lying to the metal detector man and right there, his mom walks on her hands as the two dogs run around her.