Why Give Biden’s Bitin’ Commander All the Blame?

Commander, Joe Biden’s 2-year-old German shepherd, has been removed from the White House after biting a Secret Service agent, at least the eleventh such incident since Biden took office in 2021. Commander may now join Major, another biting shepherd, who was exiled to Delaware last year to live with the president’s friends.

“As we’ve noted before,” Elizabeth Alexander, first lady Jill Biden’s communications director said in a statement, “the White House can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the first family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.”

Behind the phrase “as we’ve noted before” are several episodes of the dogs’ transgressions, including at least one instance in November 2022 in which a secret service agent required a hospital visit to treat bite wounds on his upper arm and thigh.

Anthony Guglielmi, the Service’s chief of communications, said that it was sometimes unavoidable for the agents to be near the dogs. “While special agents and officers neither care for nor handle the first family’s pets, we continuously work with all applicable entities to minimize adverse impacts in an environment that includes pets.”

Perhaps therein lies the problem. If the agents had handled the dogs a bit and gave them the occasional treat, maybe Commander and Major would not have perceived them as potential threats. The dogs may have been reacting according to their protective natures, simply being good dogs when confronted with sunglass-wearing, dour-faced men carrying guns.

White House grounds superintendent Dale Haney, who cared for Major and Commander, has been the primary caretaker for presidential pets dating back to Richard Nixon’s Irish setter, King Timahoe. Even Haney has been nipped by Commander, an incident the groundskeeper dismissed as innocent play. “Commander was being playful,” he said, “and there was no bite, no pressure of teeth on his skin, no mark — just some dog slobber.” Yikes. Haney is only 71, a baby compared to certain others in Washington, but perhaps his best years are behind him.

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