Trial and Error

Trial and Error is the one hundred and ninety-second episode from Season 1, and the season finale.

Plot
Margaret is running to the Mitchells' place with a seemingly torn book and as she arrives, she bangs on the door and orders Dennis Mitchell to answer it. When Dennis comes to the door, Margaret accuses Ruff of chewing up the book, which turns out to be her diary. Dennis swipes the diary off Margaret only for Margaret to run in to try and retrieve it back, however, she's too late to stop Dennis from reading it since Dennis finds out Margaret is calling him a "dreamboat".

Once Margaret tackles Dennis to the floor, he lets go of the diary, and Alice catches it. Margaret tells Alice that Ruff had wrecked her diary, and her justification is that her diary was in the bushes near Ruff's doghouse. Dennis tries to explain that Ruff didn't wreck Margaret's diary, but Margaret didn't believe him. Dennis declares a fair trial.

Later, Dennis and friends set up a court scene, with Jay as the judge. Joey tries to get Ruff out of his doghouse, but the only way Ruff came out was Dennis calling for him, and Ruff then sits. Margaret, as the star witness, comes to the stand and explains to herself that Ruff had wrecked her diary.

Dennis tries to object that the court scene is boring, only for Jay to agree and move onto the next witness; Fifi the Poodle. Fifi says nice stuff about Ruff, only for Ruff to blush. Dennis asks Fifi if she'd seen Ruff chew a book, to which Fifi denies. Margaret is about to object when an ice cream trucks chimes by. It's time for the court to take a brief recess. Someone puts Margaret's diary in Ruff's bowl.

Once the ice cream break is over, Margaret notices her diary is gone, only for Joey to find it in Ruff's dog bowl. Margaret is mad it's been chewed up some more. Dennis jumps to the conclusion that Ruff was framed, since he was eating ice cream during the recess judging by the cream on his face. Dennis points to Spike the Bulldog.

Dennis brings Spike to the stand and tries to pin the blame on Spike since his face is perfectly clean... except there's a piece of torn paper on his collar. Spike tries to deny his actions, only to raise his front paw, only to get caught redhanded. As Spike tries to escape, Ruff is ordered to catch him, and succeeds in doing so.

The jury then find Ruff not guilty, and Margaret congratulates him for tackling the real culprit as an apology for accusing him. Ruff then proceeds to lick Margaret, causing Margaret to groan in disgust, take her anger out that there's mud on her blouse, and blames Dennis for this stuff and finishes with "I'll see you in court!".

Errors

 * In the end, Margaret accuses Ruff of getting mud on her new dress, but her dress is still perfectly clean.
 * For almost the entire episode, Margaret's diary is green, but in the final shot, it's red.