Housepets!

Where did Peanut, Grape, Fox, etc. learn to read if pets don't go to school? Tolstoy ain't exactly light reading...

Also, thanks for the amazing comic Rick! You put the fun in funtastic crapthat'snotaword

My guess is that the parents taught them. It's been said that the pets are often treated as part of the family, so maybe they taught them when they were first adopted?

also helped by dog volunteers/educators such as Fido

An the Boot camp, pet obedience schools

Keeshah wrote:An the Boot camp, pet obedience schools

"Sit! Stay! Read!" ...?

Chron wrote:My guess is that the parents taught them. It's been said that the pets are often treated as part of the family, so maybe they taught them when they were first adopted?

that makes sense. Considering the pets are more akin to children to the humans, I don't see why they didn't read bedtime stories and such to get them a jumpstart, like a parent would to any other child.

In fact that might make for quite a cute flashback sequence for the comic

Spacemania wrote:that makes sense. Considering the pets are more akin to children to the humans, I don't see why they didn't read bedtime stories and such to get them a jumpstart, like a parent would to any other child.

In fact that might make for quite a cute flashback sequence for the comic

Earl: "And then the --ooch-- big bad wolf --ow--..."
Peanut: "Um, dad, I think my doghouse is too small for you..."

Ebly wrote:I asked a similar question ages ago on pet education, when Rick mentioned that obedience schools were more like boot camp.
I didn't get an answer. o xo;;
I'm still curious so hopefully you'll fare better.

There are some things Rick doesn't want to reveal just yet, because there going to be shown in an up coming story line...
Like the non-pawed natural pets.. which will be showing up at the farm. (if they survive the trip there)

Was bored, so decided to go far back in the archives. This feels like a conversation that should be brought back due to certain events in the comic. How are animals taught stuff in the housepets universe? It feels like something Rick could touch on if were ever blessed with another flashback arc. Definitely would love to see kittens in the comic again

Reading cereal boxes? And the comics?

NHWestoN wrote:Reading cereal boxes? And the comics?

Um, I was thinking more than just reading comprehension

Well, I didn't want to set out a whole home school curriculum...

But, okay, to take your question seriously, there's some real questions now. Throughout most of the strip, the assumption was that the pet learned through a mix of parental guidance and a sort of spontaneous Montessori self-tutorials. Very early on, Peanut mentions that he took a correspondence course in Akkadian, visits the library a lot, uses the internet and is obviously exposed to lots of media. He and other pets read, write, have a pretty high cultural literacy (they act out Shakespeare, for gosh sakes) … but they also have a lot of time on their hands. However, in the last arc, we get the younger wolves going to a formal school and with humans. It's either Middle or secondary school, not sure which, but even there, some basic skills are presumed. Are they attending because their parents want them to go because some law mandates they attend? Why them and not pets? And Miles is a teacher … are there other credentialed critters in the Babylon Gardens School system?

So … maybe Rick will play with these questions later … or maybe not. Intriguing, whatever, and another layer to life in BGardens...

Because pets have a lot of time on their hands, it would be very easy with their exposure to all sorts of media to learn how to read. Since the wolf cubs are currently in school, soon we might end up seeing them surpass the pets in terms of knowledge.

Personally, I’m just wondering if King and Bailey will argue on if their pups need to go to school or not.

Okay, Game, you may have just revealed the first post-Christmas arc. "Puppies in Pre-School?".

I mean, I’d be up for it. They’d be immediately popular, what little kid doesn’t go insane when there’s a puppy to play with?

That might also be a problem because little kids tend to be rough around small puppies or anything that looks small and adorable.

Not to mention each other ….

Yeah but when little kids really like something like a small furry pet, they end up over stimulating them which can lead to injuries.

Amazee Dayzee wrote:That might also be a problem because little kids tend to be rough around small puppies or anything that looks small and adorable.

Hence why Bailey and King would argue about it, both know the kids might get roughed up, one parent might feel getting them educated is worth the risk, the other one would be worried every second about what’s happening to them while they are away

Gameb18oy wrote:

Amazee Dayzee wrote:That might also be a problem because little kids tend to be rough around small puppies or anything that looks small and adorable.

Hence why Bailey and King would argue about it, both know the kids might get roughed up, one parent might feel getting them educated is worth the risk, the other one would be worried every second about what’s happening to them while they are away

If King wouldn't want his pups in school because he'd be worried once they're out of his sight a a five-dimensional portal will open up and suck then into an alternate universe and Bailey doesn't want her pups in school because it's not how dogs do it, then we seem to have a consensus that the puppies won't go to school.

Champion Wallace wrote:

Gameb18oy wrote:

Amazee Dayzee wrote:That might also be a problem because little kids tend to be rough around small puppies or anything that looks small and adorable.

Hence why Bailey and King would argue about it, both know the kids might get roughed up, one parent might feel getting them educated is worth the risk, the other one would be worried every second about what’s happening to them while they are away

If King wouldn't want his pups in school because he'd be worried once they're out of his sight a a five-dimensional portal will open up and suck then into an alternate universe and Bailey doesn't want her pups in school because it's not how dogs do it, then we seem to have a consensus that the puppies won't go to school.

What if the Miltons require it?

I'm not sure even the ferrets would want to cross Bailey if she's agin'it ...

As far as we know so far, they only require the animals in the program to get jobs. The wolves going to school was seemingly Miles idea.

Well, most of the better jobs require education [CITATION NEEDED], so it makes sense that Miles would want them to get one.

They could just get the jobs that the other adult wolves have as they don't have education. Or the adult wolves can give them jobs when they come of age.

Wonder what sort of documentation the school requires? Birth certificates? Shot record? Myers-Briggs?

I wanna say that the Milton's might have just bribed them to accept the wolves.

They could, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the program?

Working towards granting animals legal rights by first getting humans to see animals as people by exposing them to animals acting like people? Nope, doesn't seem to defeat the point from my perspective. Maybe there isn't any progress on the administrators that were bribed, but it would be mission accomplished for all the other students and faculty.

In education, administrators never called it a "bribe" - they called it "a noble public act of generosity". Unless it went to faculty salaries. Then they called it "misplaced".