After a gang of five Doberman pinscher dogs effect a daring bank robbery and escape into the arid hills outside a large city, newspapers report that there are no clues to follow and the $350,000 loot, which had been placed into the dogs' saddle bags, is missing. Reading the story, Greg, Steve and Warren, three young men who live at the same apartment building, decide that they should drive into the hills and locate the dogs by utilizing an oscillator, a sound wave machine that Steve hopes will emulate the pitch used by the dogs' handlers. On their first day, the friends meet two hunters who have been searching for the animals but report that the only thing they found was other people looking for the dogs. Undeterred, Greg, Steve and Warren continue changing the oscillator's settings until, one night, the dogs docilely approach their trailer. Although the men find only one intact saddlebag, it contains $58,000. Warren and Greg are happy with their shares of the money, but Steve reasons that, with the oscillator, they could learn how to control the dogs and make much more money using them to execute the perfect robbery. Although Warren is skeptical, Steve convinces him that, should anything happen, it would be the dogs, not they, who would be caught. The next day, the men drive their trailer to a long-deserted shack in the desert where they can train the dogs. As they experiment with pitches that evoke varying reactions from the dogs, Steve ponders what they should target to rob. The next morning, Steve and Greg drive back to the city for supplies, leaving Warren to care for the dogs, which they have named Fido, Rex, Spot, Rover and Prince. Steve and Greg spend the night at the apartment building, where they attend a friend's party. The next day, a Native American boy named Billy, who had observed the dogs from a ridge and asked Warren if he could help with their care, comes to the shack. When Greg arrives with supplies, he relates that Steve met an older women named Claudia at the party and decided to stay in the city a while longer. Two days later, after Warren, Greg and Billy have built an outdoor kennel for the dogs, Steve returns to the shack. Laughing off Greg and Warren's remarks about Claudia, Steve explains that he has been working on a plan and that she is the key. He then reveals that Claudia is secretary to Cyrus Markham, a campaign fund chairman who keeps over $2,000,000 in cash in his wall safe. Because the large cash donations are illegal, Steve assures them that Markham would never report the robbery. Although Steve is concerned about Billy, Warren, who is fond of the boy, assures him that Billy will help them to train the dogs and promises not to allow him overhear anything about their plans. On his next visit to the city, Steve sees a photo album in Claudia's apartment that includes photographs of her co-workers, including Markham. Learning that Ambrose Winston is the interior decorator who designed the office, Steve pays him a visit, posing as a prospective client, and coerces the decorator into giving him the blueprints of the campaign headquarters office for a few days to show his partners an example of his work. Using the blueprints as their guide, Steve, Greg and Warren build a mock-up of the office and train the dogs to follow exact directions and timing, including making several long jumps. Billy enthusiastically helps, thinking that the dogs are being trained for mountain rescues. One night, Steve goes to see Claudia, intending to take her photo album and make copies of her co-workers’ pictures to help train the dogs. However, when he arrives, Claudia says that she wants to break off their relationship because he is too young for her. She then asks him to leave, but he convinces her to let him spend the night, and the next morning takes the album. As the dogs' training is nearing completion, Steve tells Warren that he must get rid of Billy because he is too smart and could catch on to what they are doing. Although Warren does not want to hurt Billy, the next day, when the boy arrives, Warren tells him that he has become a distraction to the dogs and offers him twenty dollars to leave. Hurt and upset, Billy refuses the money and runs off, but secretly looks on as the men practice a dry run of the robbery with the dogs. The next day, while Steve and Greg go to town for a van and other supplies, Billy comes back and pleads with Warren for one last day with the dogs. Warren acquiesces, but while the dogs are playing, Prince is bitten by a rattlesnake. When Steve and Greg return, Steve is furious, but Warren convinces him that Billy's native remedies can cure the dog. After Billy stays up all night caring for Prince, the dog is completely recovered. Instead of thanking the boy, Steve throws him out and starts to beat him with his belt, forcing Billy to run off. Warren and Greg are shocked, but do nothing to intervene, then help Steve to get ready for the day's robbery. Dressed as workers for American Linen Supply, they bring the dogs into the back of the van, drive into the city and deposit the dogs on the elevator of the building in which the campaign headquarters is located. The men then drive the van to a nearby building and wait near the basement laundry chute. Using all of the tricks they have been taught, the dogs are able to obtain the money from Claudia, Markham and the other frightened employees, then go to the roof and jump from building to building until they finally find the laundry chute and slide down to the basement, where Steve, Warren and Greg are waiting. Driving away, the men laugh over the bags of cash from their perfect crime, which will never be reported. However, when they drive up to their shack, they immediately are surrounded by FBI agents who place them under arrest, not for the campaign office heist, but for the bank robbery because all of the money Steve spent on supplies was marked bank money. As the doors to the truck are opened, Billy, who is a short distance away, blows his dog whistle and they immediately run toward him. Because the FBI does not need to have the dogs present for the trial, they allow the dogs to run off to be reunited with Billy, who lovingly walks them toward his village.