Tag: White House

Doggone It: Major and Champ Biden (Temporarily) Evicted from White House

MARCH 24, 2021 UPDATE: Well, that was quick! After getting some training, Major and Champ have returned to the White House. 

Back in December, pound pup lovers were delighted with the news that for the first time in United States history, a shelter dog would be making his home in the White House. That historic hound was Major Biden, a 3-year-old German Shepherd adopted two years ago by Joe and Jill Biden.

There even was a virtual “Indoguration” in January to honor Major and raise funds for the Delaware Humane Association, the shelter from which Major was first fostered by the Bidens in 2018 and then adopted.

But just two months later, Major and the Bidens’ other dog, a 13-year-old German Shepherd named Champ, have been temporarily booted from the White House and sent back to the family’s home in Delaware.

According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Major “was surprised by an unfamiliar person and reacted in a way that resulted in a minor injury to the individual,” CNN reports. Sources told CNN that Major had previously displayed agitated behavior such as barking and “charging” at White House staff members.

Psaki also noted that the dogs’ trip home to Delaware had been planned before the incident. They usually stay at that home when Jill Biden is traveling. Major and Champ are being cared for by family friends (and hopefully Major is enjoying some sessions with a good dog trainer).

During an interview on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” last month, Jill Biden told Clarkson she’d been “getting obsessed with getting our dogs settled because we have an old dog and we have a very young dog. They have to take the elevator, they’re not used to that, and they have to go out on the South Lawn with lots of people watching them. So that’s what I’ve been obsessed with, getting everybody settled and calm.”

The good news is that Psaki said Major and Champ will be returning to the White House “soon.”

Major is getting plenty of support on social media. Kate Bennett, who reported the CNN story, tweeted, “All dogs are very good dogs though.” True!

This is also a very good idea:

And the Oval Pawffice, a fan page for the Bidens’ pets, issued a “paws release” stating, “Yelp! I am innocent.”

Hopefully this incident won’t discourage people from adopting shelter pets. After all, even dogs from breeders can get aggressive. In fact, a previous first dog, the Obamas’ Portuguese Water Dog Sunny, reportedly bit the face of a teenage visitor to the White House.

Photo: @DrBiden/Twitter

Major Biden Will Be the First Pound Pup to Live in the White House

Update: Major and Champ Biden officially moved into the White House on Jan. 24. “The First Family wanted to get settled before bringing the dogs down to Washington from Delaware,” Michael LaRosa, First Lady Jill Biden’s press secretary, told CNN. “Champ is enjoying his new dog bed by the fireplace, and Major loved running around on the South Lawn.” 

Kamala Harris, who will become the first female and first person of color to be vice president of the United States, is not the only one who will be making history in January.

Major Biden, the German Shepherd adopted two years ago by Joe and Jill Biden, will become the first rescue dog to live in the White House. It’s hard to believe, but no former pound pups have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the past 220 years.

Sure, there have been plenty of “First Dogs” — most recently, Bo and Sunny, the Portuguese Water Dogs belonging to the Obamas — but Major will be the first First Dog who wasn’t bought from a breeder or received as a gift. The Bidens have another German Shepherd, Champ, who was purchased by Joe from a breeder as a gift to Jill after the 2008 election.

The Bidens fostered Major from the Delaware Humane Association in November 2018 after their daughter, Ashley, sent them a photo of the German Shepherd. Who could resist that smile? Not the Bidens. Like so many people who are kind enough to give dogs temporary homes, they fell in love with Major, and he went from being their foster dog to their forever dog.

Last week, Biden tweeted a video of Donald Trump at a rally asking how he’d look walking a dog on the White House lawn. “I don’t feel good,” Trump said. In response, the tweet read, “Let’s put dogs back in the White House. Champ and Major for DOTUS.”

No matter who you supported in this contentious election, one thing is perfectly clear: Major is a very good boy. Here’s hoping he’s the first but not the last shelter dog to live in the White House.

Photo: @DrBiden/Twitter

I’m Dreaming of a White [House Dog-Bot] Christmas

Since 2011, holiday cards from the first family have featured Bo, their Portuguese Water Dog. Sunny, the Portuguese Water Dog they welcomed in August 2013, was also included last year.

This year, for the first time in U.S. history, the White House is sending out what it’s calling an “interactive” card — a 50-second video of the president and first lady wishing everyone happy holidays. No Bo. No Sunny.

But this doesn’t mean the first dogs are being excluded. No, also for the first time ever this year, the White House holiday decor will include two robot dogs modeled after Bo and Sunny. (Yes, Virginia, there was a mechanical Bo last year. Unfortunately, its tail got caught in the motor and started to smolder. Fortunately, it happened at the end of the holiday season.)

Three months ago, Cornell University Ph.D. candidate Stephanie Santoso was appointed as the White House’s first-ever senior adviser for its Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), helping it explore how Maker culture can help stimulate the economy.

An added perk, as the Washington Post noted, is that “Santoso knows how to design a dog robot.”

The OSTP’s Santoso, digital media senior advisor Mark DeLoura and intern Laura Gerhardt created the Bo dog-bot. During a photo session last month, an early chicken-wire version of robot Bo “swiveled its head back and forth about once a second,” the Washington Post reported, and OTSP experts “seemed pleased with the performance.”

The Sunny dog-bot was created by Presidential Innovation fellows Bosco So and David Naffis. According to the Washington Post, the Sunny dog-bot’s eyes contain infrared motion sensors that will make it turn toward someone approaching it.

To create the illusion of fur, White House chief floral designer Laura Dowling and her staff wrapped a mile of black ribbon around the dog-bots’ wire frames.

“I don’t think there’s a high-tech way of making that,” Dowling told the Washington Post.

Next year, the design teams hope to create more advanced dog-bots that can jump and have movable paws. As for barking, the teams decided against it, concerned that the dog-bots’ vocalizing might scare children.

Bo and Sunny will also be featured on “lost” ornaments hidden throughout the White House that visiting children will be asked to find. The ornaments show the dogs “putting on their snow boots, dreaming of treats, building a snowman, singing holiday songs and hanging stockings on the mantel,” according to the White House website.

The official 2014 holiday theme will be unveiled to the media tomorrow. The Washington Post reports that along with the dog-bots, the high-tech decor will include infrared motion sensors and crowd-sourced lighting patterns. Also on display will be the winners of the first-ever 3-D Printed Ornament Challenge.

The White House website notes that decorations will also honor members of the Armed Forces and their families. A Christmas tree in the East Wing will be decorated with gold star ornaments in honor of those who made gave their lives for their country.

Want to see the dog-bots in person? Click here for information about taking a White House tour.

Photo credit: Pete Souza (that’s the real Bo and Sunny, not the dog-bots)

White House Fence Jumper Faces Felony Charges for Assaulting Secret Service Dogs

For the seventh time this year, someone has jumped the fence surrounding the White House. But the latest trespasser, Dominic Adesanya, didn’t get very far yesterday. Secret Service dogs Hurricane and Jordan immediately chased him down.

When the dogs confronted him, Adesanya punched and kicked them — one of them severely. So, along with other charges, he is also facing two felony counts for animal assault, thanks to the Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act of 2000. This act makes it a federal felony to kill or inflict serious bodily injury on any federal police dog or horse.

“This person didn’t just illegally enter White House grounds — he attempted to seriously injure two law enforcement animals doing their duty,” Humane Society of the United States President Wayne Pacelle stated today in a press release.

“We support his prosecution under the Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act, and hope that a conviction and prison sentence deters other would-be criminals from hurting dogs or horses doing their work to protect our country.”

After being treated by a veterinarian for minor bruising, Hurricane and Jordan are doing fine. “Both K-9s were cleared for duty by the veterinarian,” Edwin Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, wrote in an email to the Washington Post.

Like all 25 Secret Service dogs, Hurricane and Jordan are Belgian Malinois. The agency prefers this breed because they are intelligent, strong and obedient, and can run twice as fast as a human. Plus, the agency says on its website, these dogs are more agile and have more energy than German Shepherds, another popular K-9 breed.

According to the @SecretService Twitter account, Hurricane is 6 years old and “enjoys playing with his Kong toy.” Jordan is 5 and “enjoys walks around White House.”

So where were Hurricane, Jordan and other Secret Service dogs last month, when Omar J. Gonzalez jumped the White House fence and made it all the way inside to the East Room?

The dogs were not released during that incident, the Washington Post reports. That decision is part of the review of Department of Homeland Security breakdowns that is currently being conducted by security and operations experts.

The Secret Service started using dogs in 1975. The dogs and their handlers train for 20 weeks at a facility in Maryland. As part of the agency’s Uniformed Division, each dog is trained for a specific skill, such as bomb sniffing.

The only duty of Hurricane, Jordan and other dogs who work on the grounds of the White House is to subdue intruders.

“Once you release the dogs to their objective, there’s not much that can stop them,” former Secret Service Director Ralph Basham told the Washington Post. “Take them down, slam into them. There are certain parts of the body they are trained to attack. They are trained to stop the intruder and give the handler time to respond.”

Photos via Twitter

 

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