Alder's Bouffalant debuted in Ash and Trip's Third Battle! in Trip's flashback. In years prior, Trip had attended a street fair where Alder was making an appearance. The Champion was engaged in a battle with a Herdier using Bouffalant, which he won using Bouffalant's powerful Head Charge. Following the battle, Trip introduced himself to Alder, and Alder allowed the boy to pet Bouffalant and give it some food from his hand.
Bouffalant and its Trainer made another appearance in Ash Versus the Champion!, this time in person. When Ash and Trip encountered Alder just outside Nimbasa City, he challenged the two to a battle, which he initially proposed would be two-against-one. Trip, however, was disgusted by what he saw as his idol's change in personality from his serious demeanor in their first meeting, and stormed off. Ash accepted Alder's challenge, and sent Ash's to battle Alder. Though Ash and Pikachu fought seriously, however, Alder dozed off during the battle, resulting in it being called off. Irritated by this, Bouffalant attacked him with Head Charge and rammed him into a tree, but calmed down when Alder gave it an apple. Later, Alder sent Bouffalant back out to face a rampaging Gigalith, but quickly decided to deal with the problem himself instead.
Bouffalant made a cameo appearance in Climbing the Tower of Success! in the form of a flashback when Ash had to dress up like him during the Wishing Bell Festival contest. After Trip got the chance to battle Alder in Ash, Iris and Trip: Then There Were Three! and Goodbye, Junior Cup - Hello Adventure!, Bouffalant was sent out to take on Serperior. As Serperior was a Grass-type and used Grass-type moves on Bouffalant, Bouffalant was able to activate its Sap Sipper ability which negated damage, which Trip planned that it happened in order to have Alder and Bouffalant keep their guard down. Serperior than attacked Bouffalant with Dragon Tail to distract his foe even more. This gave the Regal Pokémon a chance to lower its defenses with Leer and to swat it away with Dragon Tail again, but this time, at its most vulnerable spot. However, this was not enough to take out Bouffalant as Bouffalant was unscathed by these attacks. Afterwards, Bouffalant takes out Serperior with a Head Charge since Trip's strategy did not work on Alder as he was the Champion instead of a normal Trainer.