In the late 1860s, Jim Coates leaves his wife Katie, his older son Travis, and younger son Arliss to collect cattle in Kansas. While Jim is away, Travis sets off to work in the cornfield, where he encounters a dog he names "Old Yeller", a Labrador Retriever mix. He was called that because "yeller" is a dialect pronunciation of yellow and the fact that his bark sounds more like a human yell. Travis unsuccessfully tries to shoo the dog away, but Arliss likes him and defends him from Travis. However, the dog's habit of stealing meat from smokehouses and robbing hens' nests does not endear him to Travis.