Why don't they just call them "the dog dies in the end"? Because that's what happens in all of them.
I have enough death and depression in my life; I don't need Hollywood to be trying to goad me into tears. Dogs die. We know this. We have experienced this. I don't want to pay $7 (and that's for the MATINEE around here) to go see a dog die.
I can think of only 2 exceptions to this and both were insipid Disney crap. *
*and even insipid Disney crap is
not reliable.