Decoy for a Dognapper

Decoy for a Dognapper is the fifth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
When Mystery Inc. hear about a series of dognappings, they investigate. But when Scooby is dognapped, mistaken for another dog, the gang tracks him to a secret hide-out in the desert where they face an Indian witchdoctor and a ghostly Indian on horseback.

Synopsis
While out for a walk, Scooby sees a prize poodle kidnapped and races to find the rest of the gang, who listen to the radio broadcast an update on a rash of dognappings. They visit one of the victims, Buck Masters, who thinks that the dognappings are related to an upcoming dog show. The gang decide to play the hunch, substituting Scooby as a decoy for a prizewinning Great Dane belonging to another show competitor. The ploy works, and Scooby is grabbed by the dognappers. Shaggy gives chase on a motor scooter but loses the dognappers' truck when he is menaced by a ghostly Indian on horseback. Meanwhile, the dognapper's ringleader, the Indian Witch Doctor, recognizes that Scooby is not Miller's Great Dane and has his henchman put Scooby on a rail car and send him down the mountain.

The rest of the gang, following the tracking beacon on Scooby's collar, catches up with Shaggy, and they then all watch as Scooby goes racing down the railroad track. Shaggy leaps onto the railcar, brakes it, and rushes it back to safety just ahead of the midnight express. Scooby leads them back to where he had been taken, an abandoned Indian village high up in a cliff. No sooner do they arrive than the witch doctor appears and warns them off. But the gang separates and press on. Fred and Daphne once again meet the witch doctor, and Daphne vanishes when Fred goes to investigate the stone idol in front of which the witchdoctor had been standing. Meanwhile, Scooby also becomes separated from Shaggy and Velma; following a passage, he finds Daphne (who's been tied up) and the imprisoned dogs. The two of them round up the rest of the gang, free the dogs, and use them to chase and tree the witchdoctor, who they unmask as Buck Masters. It had been Masters' plan to kidnap all the dogs who might have beaten his own dog in the competition and then release his dog in time to win.

Villains

 * Indian Witch Doctor/Buck Masters
 * Mike
 * Ghost of Geronimo (projection)

Suspects
None

Locations

 * Buck Masters's office
 * Beach Boulevard
 * Train tracks
 * Indian village

Notes/trivia

 * The Indian Witch Doctor appears in the theme song.
 * This is the first time Shaggy's seen to have a Scooby Snack and it's implied that this is in fact the first time he's had one.
 * This is one of the rare instance, perhaps even the only time, that Scooby is on a leash.
 * During the railroad trestle scene, in close-ups of the Midnight Express train, parts of the Santa Fe railway logo can be seen on the locomotive.
 * The fact that the gang finds abandoned cliff dwellings (being used a hide-out by the villains) gives a hint as to this episode's setting: somewhere in the Southwestern U.S.
 * The Indian witch doctor warns the gang that they will "meet the fate of Spanish conquistadores" if they do not leave. Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explored the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542; he was among the first Europeans to view the Grand Canyon.
 * This is the first time they play real detectives and offer their services to someone (even if it does turn out to be the culprit).
 * This is the also first time that the gang decides to investigate a case that initially has nothing to do with the supernatural. Eventually, the dognapping case does become supernatural with the appearance of the Indian witch doctor ghost.

Miscellaneous

 * Disguises: Champion dog and owner
 * Food: Frankfurters; sandwiches
 * Scooby Snacks: 2

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * The picture of Bob Miller's dog is originally shown in full, but the second time only its head and neck are shown. The word "Champion" also moves from inside the teal background to the white frame. The "p" in "Champion" in the second shot also looks more like a "d". The eyes are different in each one too, in the first they're black and in the second they're just brown as if it has his eyes shut.
 * Fred calls it a "photo", although it could be seen as a framed picture.
 * When the scene shifts from Fred holding it, to the entire gang, he's now holding two sheets of empty paper.
 * The photo goes from Fred to Shaggy, but there's no noticeable exchange between them.
 * As Fred is putting the new collar on Scooby, there is a line on his neck.
 * On Beach Boulevard, while Shaggy is talking to Scooby about taking and Bob Miller's and his dog's place for their evening walk, the top of the dog lead is poking through the collar.
 * The new collar is supposed to have replaced Scooby's regular one, but when Mike opens the crate and the Indian Witch Doctor reacts to seeing Scooby, his dogtag is sticking out. A few seconds later, when the Indian Witch Doctor tells Mike to get rid of Scooby, his collar is also sticking out.
 * When Scooby digs his nails into the floor boards, they are brown.
 * As Shaggy is telling Fred about his encounter with the Ghost of Geronimo, the additional equipment in the Mystery Machine is missing.
 * While Scooby has his head out of the crate, two of the holes have simply been covered in brown even if it doesn't match Scooby's movements.
 * When Scooby looks at Shaggy trying to pull the lever, his dog collar is miscoloured like his regular one. (A bit of his body below his collar is also missing so it looks like his head is floating.) When he then reacts to helping Shaggy, the new dog collar is completely in blue.
 * Scooby's head floats again when he tells Shaggy to go faster as the train is gaining on them.
 * When they watch the train go past them (after Fred pulled a switch), Scooby's new collar is blue again.
 * After the brief flade to black after the rescue, Scooby is now wearing his regular collar. It's fairly possible that they replaced it in that brief instance, although it seems highly unlikely as the first thing Daphne and Velma seem to do is ask Scooby if he's okay.
 * Shortly after the bats, as the gang enters the old Indian village, Daphne and Fred are about to go into a room (right before they see the witch doctor and Daphne falls through a trapdoor). Look closely and one part, one of the lavender strips on Daphne's skirt is missing.
 * Fred's figure is gone after they chase after the dognapper.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * It's unknown why Scooby was roaming in the middle of the neighbourhood by himself without the rest of the gang. He doesn't do that again. It's possible like the SDMI Scooby said about walkign him self, as revealed in The Man in the Mirror, that this Scooby also does the same.
 * Mr. Masters has an office meaning he has some job of importance, but he could've very well got this from the many dog shows he's been in (although he could've just decorated his office with his many prize-winning show dog?).
 * It's impossible to identify Big Red, as Mr. Masters has his office full of pictures of other species of dog. Apparently he's bred many dogs to be contests (and maybe that was the point).
 * At this point in the series (as revealed in Spooky Space Kook), Velma is not established to be technologically proficient so it's unknown where they got the equipment (transmitter, direction finder, etc.) they used in this episode.
 * Inspite of Daphne's wealth (which isn't established until The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show episode, No Thanks, Masked Manx, or hadn't been retconned yet like in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), it doesn't seem likely that the gang would pay out for a new expensive collar, so it's unknown if they faked it or burrowed it from Miller? Also it's unknown if Shaggy's trenchcoat and hat is burrowed from Bob Miller, too? If it is from Miller than it's rather careless of Shaggy when he seemingly discards it before driving the scooter.
 * The pink dog also seems to be completely left alone by its owner. It's also of a made up breed.
 * After Shaggy escaped the bats, Scooby greeted him with a hello, but Shaggy replied, "Hi, Rooby." Inspite of that, the subtitles and closed captions still say "Scooby".
 * Mike isn't apprehended, at least not on-screen, but he isn't mentioned in the dognapping plot either, in the exposition to the sheriff at the end of the episode.
 * According to a plaque on the sheriff's wall, he's in charge of Mega County, implying that the gang must live here. It was never explicitly revealed where they lived, and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo would establish the gang's home town as Coolsville. It's possible Mega County could be retconned to be next to Coolsville.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries VHS released June 4, 2002.
 * Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries DVD released March 14, 2000.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released March 16, 2004.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Volume 2 - Bump in the Night DVD released May 5, 2009.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released November 9, 2010.

Quotes
"You blasted kids! Why didn't you mind your own business?! Actually, catching dog thieves is our business, Mr. Masters. After all, Scooby-Doo is a dog, and we love him very much. Aaawwww."

- Buck Masters, Fred and Scooby-Doo.