Conversely, presidents who appear to mistreat their canine companions go straight to the doghouse. Lyndon B. Johnson loved his dogs—and even “sang” duets with Yuki, a stray that LBJ’s daughter Luci found abandoned at a gas station in Texas. But the hounds were let loose when Life magazine ran a story on LBJ discussing his relationship with his beagles, Him and Her. One photograph showed the president lifting Him up by his ears. Johnson insisted, “I’ve been pulling Him’s ears since he was a pup, and he seemed to like it.” But howls of protest erupted from pet fanciers across the country. Coincidentally or not, LBJ declined to run for reelection in 1968.
Decades later, in 2012, Mitt Romney’s campaign against President Barack Obama went to the dogs. Was it because the patrician GOP candidate was secretly recorded saying that 47% of Obama’s voters were “dependent upon government”? Or because years earlier, during a 12-hour road trip from Boston to Ontario, Romney had put Seamus, his Irish setter, in a dog carrier that he’d strapped on top of the family station wagon? According to The New York Times, one wag suggested on Fox News that to be more likable, Romney “should go out onstage with the dog that he had on the roof of the car and have the dog endorse him right there…Seamus and Mitt. (Except Seamus is dead, and Mitt is struggling to prove he’s alive.)”
The outraged reaction to Major’s troubles suggests that presidents would be wise to coddle their pooches. Indeed, Biden appears to be a hopeless dog lover, a coddler in chief. Commander, despite the biting spree of his predecessor Major, appears to have been given a very long leash. So long, according to a cache of records obtained by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, that Commander has attacked Secret Service agents and officers not once but 10 times over a recent four-month stretch. Ruh-roh!
The drama had all the elements of a minor scandal—or maybe a hit song: “Who Let Biden’s Dogs Out?” The official explanation came from first lady Jill Biden’s spokesperson, Elizabeth Alexander: “The White House complex is a unique and often stressful environment for family pets, and the First Family is working through ways to make this situation better for everyone.” In other words, would everyone please just let sleeping dogs lie? Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the press corps, “The White House complex can be unique and very stressful. And that is something I’m sure you all can understand.” Wink-wink.
Maybe the fault lies not with the dogs but with their West Wing handlers. The fact that more than one of Biden’s dogs have gone rogue suggests that the humans, not the pooches, may be the ones in need of training. Cesar Millan, widely known as the dog whisperer from his popular television show, has offered to help. As Millan told Politico’s “West Wing Playbook,” “It’s like, ‘Hey, guys, it’s obviously not the dog. Let the dog whisperer come into the White House and just do what I’ve done for 20 years.’” So far, the White House isn’t biting.
Complicating things, Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, head of the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, writing in The New York Times, posed several questions to consider in trying to understand Commander’s aggressive behavior:
Did someone suddenly approach Commander (surprising him)? Does it look as if he was in pain or in an uncomfortable situation (the bite as information about his discomfort)? Did he give warning signs like a growl or bark before biting (defensively)? Was the bite done in response to a spirited gesture or a chase (playfully)? What did the dog do after the bite—continue to bite or step back? Bark and jump (more assertive) or roll on his back, exposing his belly (more submissive or playful)?
These may well be important factors—who am I to argue with the experts? But readers of my book—especially followers of the Oval Pawffice—have suggested another possibility. Dogs know things that mere bipeds do not.
Teddy Roosevelt’s bulldog, Pete, once chewed the pants off the French ambassador. Who’s to say the ambassador didn’t have it coming to him? (Who in Washington hasn’t been tempted to put a haughty foreign diplomat in his place?) On a more poignant note, Jim Bishop, author of FDR’s Last Year, wrote that when Franklin Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945, Fala seemed to intuit what had happened.
Chris Whipple
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