Owner and his telepathically connected dog, impress every one they meet, and take the show on the road to financial independence.

Spike2018,

You wrote “…Is paying off gambling debts an inciting incident? Or do I need to be more specific like: Exorbitant Super Bowl losses?”

No, paying off debts is a series of actions, not an incident, it’s also something that the main character does himself – on his own accord. In previous threads I explained, in detail, what makes a good inciting incident, here it is again – A good inciting incident is a single, out of the ordinary, and motivating event that was initiated by an external force to the main character.

If I were to convert your above suggestion into an inciting incident it would probably look like this:
After a bookie cracks his thumb, a lowner, telepathically connected to his dog, goes on the road…

As Richiev wrote, where is the conflict going to come from? If he’s on the road, well, he’s on the road doing his thing – not much to it. What If the bookie were to pursue him? Then you have a source of conflict.

If the owner’s goal is to achieve financial independence, you need to describe a single definitive image that will explain, beyond a doubt, that he has achieved it – own his own house, quit his job, pay off a criminal debtor, etc… whatever it is, you need to describe the goal using more specific terms within the logline.

Secondly, the logline would benefit from having a good motivating event, or in other words, a quality inciting incident. A story should be described within a finite time scale by using a starting point (inciting incident) and an end point (goal).