Taking advice from this website: http://www.edogadvice.com/paper-training.php, what suggestions would I make to Elly Patterson about her actions in today’s For Better or For Worse?:
1. Always leash your puppy after every meal to go outdoors. I know Farley is a good dog, but if he starts running, he will surely outrun Elly Patterson.
2. Sniffing the ground is often the only sign the puppy will give that it needs to empty its bowels or bladder. This sniffing Farley is doing is what puppies do.
3. You probably want Farley to use a remote area for its toilet and not right there in the front yard. Puppy urine is acidic and burns grass.
4. Clean up after your puppy with a plastic bag or pooper scooper.
5. Yelling at your dog will only make it scared of you.
Of course criticizing Elly's behaviour with a puppy she just got, is a little like criticizing Elly's parenting skills. The fact she is terrible at it, and makes mistakes, is supposed to be funny. In fact, that is the the whole point of today's reprint. We are supposed to laugh that Elly is so impatient she yells at the dog, who is so suprised to be yelled at. Isn't bad parenting hilarious?
1. Always leash your puppy after every meal to go outdoors. I know Farley is a good dog, but if he starts running, he will surely outrun Elly Patterson.
2. Sniffing the ground is often the only sign the puppy will give that it needs to empty its bowels or bladder. This sniffing Farley is doing is what puppies do.
3. You probably want Farley to use a remote area for its toilet and not right there in the front yard. Puppy urine is acidic and burns grass.
4. Clean up after your puppy with a plastic bag or pooper scooper.
5. Yelling at your dog will only make it scared of you.
Of course criticizing Elly's behaviour with a puppy she just got, is a little like criticizing Elly's parenting skills. The fact she is terrible at it, and makes mistakes, is supposed to be funny. In fact, that is the the whole point of today's reprint. We are supposed to laugh that Elly is so impatient she yells at the dog, who is so suprised to be yelled at. Isn't bad parenting hilarious?
posted by howard at 9:55 PM
5 Comments:
howard,
Isn't bad parenting hilarious.
Lynn certainly seems to think so. Her entire career is based on depicting stupid, selfish, reckless and counterproductive behavior as a great big joke that gets rewarded by people giving you access to all the limos in your town and a 25K advance on a horrible novel.
1) "Always leash your puppy after every meal to go outdoors." As we know, Elly has never bothered with leashes despite the local bylaws mandating their use. This is because if she did, then the dog would decide where she should go and thus would "win". She'd rather the dog risk unnecessary harm than have him "dictate" to her.
2) "Sniffing the ground is often the only sign that the puppy will give that it needs to empty its bowels or bladder." Elly does not really understand animal behavior; she probably believes that Farley is purposely withholding his urine and poo so he can maliciously make her life harder. Telling her that she took him in too soon because she lacked patience serves no useful purpose owing to her sullen refusal to admit ignorance or error.
3) "You probably want Farley to use a remote area for its toilet and not right there in the front yard. Puppy urine is acidic and burns grass." Again, Elly doesn't know that and refuses to learn; having him pee within inches of the front porch so she doesn't have to do anything other than stand around getting pointlessly upset seems like a lot of work.
4) "Clean up after your puppy with a plastic bag or pooper scooper." To Elly, that would make the dog the boss of her.
5) "Yelling at your dog will only make it scared of you." Elly needs to establish dominance and doesn't care what the dog thinks anyway.
dreadedcandiru2,
The best thing is that thanks to knowing the future, we know Elly will never get any smarter. Every one of these mistakes she made with young Farley the dog back in 1980, she makes again with Dixie and Edgar in 2006. What's even better is that after 26 years, not only are the dogs scared of her, but so is her husband.
Not only does she not learn anything, she's forgotten that she ever screwed up. She probably still thinks that she was the best pet trainer EVAH!!
dreadedcandiru2,
This is the disadvantage that Lynn Johnston has with no more modern strips. She no longer has the possibility of writing a strip where Elly and Connie reflect back on how wonderful they were. Lynn will have to put across the idea that she is the best pet trainer EVAH some other way.
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