You know the drill: A group of neighborhood kids rescue their dog from the clutches of the evil Kennel Master and the local street gang.
My two cents worth: This movie reminds me a lot of The Goonies; group of diverse 1980's kids working together to take down the ring of bad guys. I'm guessing that the movie will have the most appeal if you see it for the first time when you're about the same age or younger than the characters (12 or 13).
Part of the attraction was watching the kids plan and execute the kennel break in, using only the limited resources that a kid would have access to (kind of subversive, for Disney). The scenes with the town Hermit as their trainer/mentor were a nice touch, along with the pure evilness of the Kennel Master.
Like Mr. Boogedy and many of the other Disney Channel movies from the same time period, these have never been released on tape. I don't even think they re-air them anymore, which is unfortunate, since I'm sure there are other people out there who remember them as fondly as I do (and my copy-of-a-copy is looking pretty shabby).
Recommendations: Other good live action Disney? "Flight of the Navigator", for sure (though copies are pretty hard to come by), "Honey, I shrunk the kids" (which Disney channel's been re-airing recently), and "Three Musketeers" are some of my favorites. I'd also recommend Hocus Pocus (though it's not to everyone's taste).