‘Paw-some’ lives of White House dogs
The Dogs of United States have often provided much scope for hilarity during their stay
Washington: With the vacant position of DOTUS (Dog of the United States) at the White House now filled after four years by Major and Champ Biden — dogs of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden — questions remain as to who fills the dogs’ water dishes, rubs the bellies and whether the dogs could just enter the Oval Office.
Many first families care for their dogs themselves, long-time White House chief usher Gary Walters said. Walters oversaw the residence portion of the house through a slew of first canines, from Lucky Reagan (dog of former President Ronald Regan) in the 1980s to Barney and Miss Beazley Bush in the 2000s.
Jennifer Pickens, the author of “Pets at the White House”, said that former President and First Lady George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush were “do-it-yourselfers” adding that the former President even bathe their dogs in the residence shower.
Mark Tobin, a Delaware police dog trainer who worked with the Biden family told Washington Post that Biden wants to walk the dogs himself – a practice followed by his predecessors.
It has been seen in history and even in the recent past that DOTUS’s place isn’t limited to a certain area and many dogs have been allowed to roam in the White House including the staff offices in the East Wing and West Wing.
With dogs living and roaming around, the concerns of them wrecking up, chewing things, and biting at the White House is natural. And the incidents of Barney (George W Bush’s dog) biting a correspondent’s finger in 2008 on camera and also attacking a police dog aren’t hidden.
In another incident, a breach in diplomacy occurred when President Theodore Roosevelt’s dog chased the French ambassador up a tree on the WH grounds in 1906, according to a historian.
