Oct.06

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News from the White House, Part II: Martha, My Dear

Supposedly, Paul McCartney wrote "Martha, My Dear" about his English sheepdog. We do not know if Martha ever bit anyone. We do know that Commander, the First Dog, bites people regularly, enough that it's become a big story. That is particularly true over at CNN; if there was a Pulitzer for dog-bites-man news, CNN would definitely win it this year.

We obviously have no inside information about this situation, we know only what has been reported, namely that there have been about a dozen biting incidents. That said, we do know a few things about dogs and dog ownership. And so we thought we'd share a few observations for anyone trying to make sense of this situation:

• Many dog owners have a favored breed. The cleverest ones prefer dachshunds, or so we are told. For other people, there are all sorts of considerations in play. The Bidens have been German Shepherd people for a very long time. Unfortunately, a shepherd is just about the worst kind of dog for the White House. Shepherds are hard-wired to dislike chaos and to try to impose order. The White House is nothing but chaos. Very stressful for a shepherd.
  
  
• There are dog bites and there are dog bites. Some bites are playful. Some are accidental. Some are purposeful. Unless the bite draws serious blood (and, to be fair, several of Commander's bites have done so), it can be hard to be sure which kind you're dealing with. Further, there is much motivation for the dog owner to err on the side of judging a bite to be "playful" or "accidental." Nobody wants to think they've got a problem dog.
  
  
• Once it becomes clear there is a problem, then it's ideally time for some training. Commander has gotten additional training, several times. But once the training is over, there's no way to know whether or not it worked. You just re-introduce the dog into the problematic situation and hope the problem is solved. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
  
  
• It's not easy to send a dog away, either to a secondary residence (like the Bidens' Delaware home) or to a new permanent residence (say, a friend of the Bidens). First, because people who get dogs generally do so because they want the dog around as a friend/companion. Sure, some politicians don't actually care about their dogs, but the Bidens were dog people long before Joe was in the executive branch and there was political value in having a pet. Second, because getting a dog means making a commitment, and it's not pleasing to fail to fulfill that commitment.

Again, we have no special information about this particular problem or why it's gone on for so long. But we suspect that much of the answer is contained within those four bullet points.

It is also worth pointing out that someone with inside knowledge is talking to the press, and that someone (or those someones) would have access to the Bidens' private living spaces. Since we rather doubt that members of the Biden family are running to the press, there's a pretty good chance that one or more U.S.S.S. agents is dishing the dirt. The relationship between the Bidens and their protective detail is not great, in part because of the dog issues, in part because the Bidens often change their plans last minute, and in part because Joe Biden isn't Trump. The point is that someone apparently has an ax to grind, which is worth keeping in mind when reading these stories about the First Dog.

All of this said, Commander has been sent to live elsewhere, at least for now. And he should not be brought back to the White House. Politically, this story is doing harm to the administration, as it's the kind of thing that people understand and feel strongly about. That's less true with something more abstract like, say, trade agreements with Australia. On top of that, it's not kind to the Secret Service agents if they do not feel safe. And it's also not kind to the dog. The trainers have tried to train this out of him, and it hasn't worked. If he was any other dog, he almost certainly would have been destroyed after multiple acts of aggression. So, the First Family is just going to have to accept that a sub-optimal solution is the best and only solution left. (Z)