Following the 11th bite (at least) by Pres Biden’s German Shepherd dog, Commander, Kent Boyles, one of America’s top German Shepherd breeders and trainers has advised the Bidens to control Commander’s environment more closely and in addition not allow their dog to run loose where he can encounter strangers.
Boyles, 58, said: “They are probably the most trainable dog in the world”. Thereby encouraging President Biden to take steps to change what must be an unacceptable state of affairs. In an earlier article I said that one Secret Service employee working in the White House saw Commander at the top of the stairs and turned around and retreated! He didn’t want to go anywhere near the dog. This means that the dog is interfering with day-to-day business in the White House.
Boyles said that Biden should train his dog to drop down on command and return to his handler to avoid what was triggering the dog to bite. He believes that the ability to stop and recall a charging dog should be a central part of police dog training. The fact that German shepherds are used as service dogs supports his view that they are very trainable.
He says that to train them to stop and recall them would be a “safety switch”. He added: “You have to be able to ‘down’ that dog and then call him back towards you; you have to have a recall so that the dog knows he’s got to stop and come back, no matter what’s going on, even if he’s running full speed. They will need to help with a professional to get that accomplished.”
Once the dog has been trained as described and is therefore much safer, Pres Biden and his family can then top up their training with a couple of 15-minute training sessions daily which can be regarded as playtime from the dog’s perspective.
And secondly, this dog trainer/breeder said that the dog should be trained to be able to deal with visitors to avoid him wishing to guard his territory so aggressively.
Boyle added: “If the same people are coming over all the time, you could set the dog up for some exercises and conditioning so that when the person comes over, instead of the dog feeling like he’s got to play watchdog and start reactive behaviour, if the stranger comes over to play and feed the dog then he starts to look forward to it.”
Comment: there is a gentle hint there in this advice that Pres Biden has been remiss in not doing enough already. After all there have been 11 bites on White House staff. You could argue that the President should have done something before he brought Commander into the White House in terms of the training as described. The German Shepherd is very territorial which is a great asset in the right place but in the White House with all the comings and goings it must be confusing for the dog to try and protect the president’s territory.
