President Biden likes German Shepherd dogs. He has two. Major is a rescue dog who was removed from the White House because he was biting too many people. And Commander, the other, younger, German Shepherd has reportedly delivered 11 bites to various White House staff. In short both of his German Shepherds are unsuited to White House life.
The problem is said to be that German Shepherds are particularly territorial. In the surroundings of the White House with all the comings and goings, the strange people and activity, Commander is confused as to his territory and about those invading it. The White House is not a place for a territorial dog.
In defending territory against strangers, he might bite them. The latest example occurred when he bit a Secret Service Uniformed Division police officer. This is the not the first secret service agent that he has bitten.
Perhaps secret service agents are prone to being bitten as they will more likely be unknown people to Commander and they might he tracking Biden and getting too close.
Commander feels that they are threatening him, their alpha dog and leader and so they protect him. It is all completely normal for the dog. The dog is as much a victim as the agent who was bitten.
The root cause of the problem is that Commander should not be in the White House. And the reason why he is there is because of a bad decision by President Biden. I am afraid he made a bad choice in adopting a German Shepherd as they are, as mentioned, prone to being overly territorially aggressive on my understanding of the breed.
But he loves the breed. There you have the problem. I wonder if this last incident will lead to Commander also being removed from the White House?
I would like to add some more material to this page now that The Times has reported on it. In an amusing turn, the White House is now called the “Bite House”!
And At Times tells us that Commander has been involved in at least 11 biting incidents. Note the phrase “at least”. It would seem, to an outsider, to be an untenable situation. I expect anybody in the White House walking towards Biden’s dog to stop, turn around and go back in the opposite direction!
Steve Kopek, a spokesman for the Secret Service said the following about the bite:
Yesterday around 8 PM, a Secret Service uniformed division police officer came in contact with a first family pet and was bitten. The officer was treated by medical personnel on [the] complex.
Elizabeth Alexander a spokeswoman for Jill Biden, added the following:
The White House can be a stressful environment for family pets. The first family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often-unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.
Apparently, emails released by a Conservative group tell us that an agent had to grab a chair to use as a shield when Commander barked at him from the top of a staircase in the White House.
