“Commander is not presently on the White House campus while next steps are evaluated,” Alexander added, with out specifying the place the canine was despatched.
Commander’s elimination follows quite a lot of biting episodes since he was delivered to the White House as a puppy in 2021, essentially the most recent of which occurred final week, when the canine bit a Secret Service officer in what was reportedly the eleventh recognized incidence of aggression. Last November, an agent was hospitalized after Commander, unprovoked, bit the particular person’s arm and thigh, in response to emails and information obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch.
Alexander stated final week that “the White House can be a stressful environment for family pets,” including that the Biden household was engaged on “ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.”
Commander, a present from President Biden’s brother and sister-in-law, joined the primary couple within the White House in December 2021 after they misplaced or rehomed two German shepherds that 12 months: Major, then 3, was despatched to stay with buddies of the Bidens after he bit two individuals within the house of a month. Champ, purchased shortly after Biden turned vp in 2008, died aged 13.
Mark Tobin, a Delaware canine coach who labored with the Bidens’ dogs, instructed The Washington Post in January 2021 that Major had a “high drive.”
German shepherds had been first bred as a herding canine, in response to the American Kennel Club, and have been utilized by the police and as information dogs. They are recognized for his or her loyalty and are “gentle family pets,” the organization’s website says — although it provides that they might not at all times be essentially the most welcoming to strangers.
“For every German shepherd that acts inappropriately, you’re going to find many, many more who do the right thing every single day in service to mankind,” Vicki Bemont, a canine coach who serves on the German Shepherd Dog Club of America’s schooling committee, instructed The Post after Major’s biting incidents.
A 2014 literature review from the American Veterinary Medical Association discovered that German shepherds had been among the many breeds “highly represented in biting incidents” throughout a variety of research — however it steered that there might be excessive variability primarily based on breed subtypes and possession.
President Biden has a penchant for bigger dogs, telling reporters in 2008: “I’ve always had a big dog my whole life since I was a kid, big German shepherds, and Great Danes, and Labs, and golden retrievers.” He and first girl Jill Biden even have a cat named Willow.
Maura Judkis and John Wagner contributed to this report.
