For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 24, 2011

Poor Farley!!!

YES!

Poor Farley!! “Nizzie” needs to be taught how to deal with animals without abusing them.

Nizzie go to her room and leave Farley alone.

Kids need training in how to handle pets. It is not OK to hurt others. And that includes pets.

In this – and most cases – it’s the parent who doesn’t monitor a child around the dog. I’m sorry, but dogs are tamed, but still have instincts. You can’t expect them to get man handled and not react. PARENTS REMEMBER TO WATCH YOUR CHILDREN AROUND ANIMALS.

In my house, Nizzie would have been in for the scolding, not Farley.

We introduced my little nephew to my grandparents’ dog last Christmas. He would chase that dog all over the place and try to pat it the same way Elizabeth is here (boomboom), and we kept having to be like, “Geeeeentle. Geeeeeeentle” while guiding him on how to pet.

He didn’t quite get it by the time we left, but we certainly didn’t let him beat up on the poor dog.

Momma didn’t see anything Nizzie did to poor Farley. Momma came in the room and saw Nizzie on the floor, with Farley going ’ ***WOOOFFFF*** Farley should be commended for his tolerance of the the accidental abuse Nizzie parcled out and if Michael had been behind Nizzie watching the scene unfold he should have spoke up on Farley’s behalf.

And yes, I am from the school that our fur babies are not ‘it’. They are he and she, him and her (and my sweetie noogums, of course…. :-) )

MAYBE CUZ MOMMY NOT SEE ELIZABETH .. CUZ ELIZABETH PLAYER WITH DOGGIE AHAHAHA FARLEY GET ANGRY HURT BODY AND LIZZY PULL EAR… NO BODY SAW IT..

@quaby; love your avatar.

you all might be interested to know the writer of this strip has her own blog about each day’s comic strip where she makes remarks about each day’s work. Here is today’s comment -

Lynn’s Notes:

It amazes me how resilient and stoic some dogs are with young children. They put up with being sat on, pulled at and strangled. Their patience and good humour is remarkable. They seem to instinctively know that babies don’t know any better and just have to learn. On the other hand, some dogs can’t tolerate young children at all. Some bark and snarl, some just ignore kids and walk away. Amazing, isn’t it… to see how often dogs behave like people!

I agree, psychlady! I never accepted the rationale of “kids will be kids”. Either you need to monitor them closely and teach them proper behavior (which Lizzie seems to be at that age), or they should be punished for improper behavior.

Poor Farley…. I woulda bit her…

No, Bad parent, bad bad parent!

Nizzie is a toddler. She probably doesnt know thats wrong. Take a few steps back, and calm down.

Good grief, no. That’s ridiculous.

Man, as an older bro, I dig this.

This proves that men live doggish lives.

It’s funny (and I mean that sarcastically) how parents never seem to “catch” and punish the instigators . . . only the “victims” when they finally decide they’ve had enough and start fighting back. 

Lizzie may not have meant to abuse poor Farley but she did . . . and Farley was the one that got punished for it! I feel sorry for him because that certainly wasn’t fair. He took it as long as he could until he couldn’t take it anymore (which was a whole lot longer than my dog did when my young nephew was about Lizzie’s age and tried to “play” that rough with her. She didn’t just “woof” at him — she actually tried to take a nip at him. He’s much older now and knows better but that doesn’t matter. She remembers his rough treatment upon their first meeting and avoids him like the plague whenever she sees him!). Dogs are a whole lot smarter than people give them credit for!!!!!

Nizzie’s mommy shouldn’t leave her child unattended with a dog if she has not first firmly instilled respect for that dog. Treat a kid like they are smarter than a dog (hopefully so!) and don’t hold the dog responsible for an abusive child. This one really frosts my flakes!

This really isn’t fair to the dog, and it’s not safe to allow a child so young to interact unsupervised with a dog. Children this young have not yet developed empathy, judgment or self control. Maybe the purpose of this strip is to illustrate this? If you can’t watch young children then the dog should be in a crate or behind a baby gate.

Just because a dog tolerates this abuse one day doesn’t mean he’ll tolerate it tomorrow. Tomorrow he may be sick or have a sore back ad not be as patient. We wouldn’t expect a sibling to tolerate this abuse. Why do we expect it of the dog?

What these people are doing is challenging the dog’s tolerance, and tolerance wears out. That’s when you see the growl or bite, and the dog loses his home or even his life.