How to housebreak your dog

Ernie Bushmiller is best known as the creator of the Nancy comic strip, which was known for being very wholesome. But it turns out that his most popular and frequently reproduced cartoon, by a wide margin, was a slightly off-color one that he drew in 1961, and which was included that year in the Duch Treat Club Yearbook. He titled it "How to housebreak your dog."

The Comics Journal details the many lives of this cartoon, noting:

For whatever reasons "How To Housebreak Your Dog" has screamed “reproduce me” again and again to America for nearly six decades and willing entrepreneurs have readily responded to this call of nature. Bushmiller’s humble dog-pee joke flows gloriously onward, replicating like mutant bacteria through the dark alleys of our pop culture. And like a grinning dog before a mighty oak, each subsequent publisher seems strangely compelled to leave his unique mark on this enduring work.

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 06, 2019
Category: Comics | Dogs | 1960s

Comments

I can't believe I never saw this before. I'll definitely be sharing it with my dog-loving friends!

Posted by Fritz on 07/06/19 at 07:15 AM

I can recall seeing this great cartoon some time in the past. Today it reminded of another cartoon and how it was treated by two different newspapers. I have two versions of a Dennis the Menace cartoon, one from the San Francisco Chronicle with the caption by Dennis "I've got to take a leak" and one from the Redding Record Searchlight with the caption changed to "I've got to go to the bathroom"

Posted by Steve E. on 07/06/19 at 05:19 PM

Dogs + pee = timeless humor

Posted by Brian on 07/07/19 at 10:34 PM

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