Joe Biden’s dogs have reportedly been returned to the family home in Delaware after showing aggressive behaviour towards White House staff.
Champ and Major, both German shepherds, were sent home last week after Major had a “biting incident” with a member of the White House security team, CNN reported.
Major, who is three years old, was adopted by the Bidens in 2018 and is the first White House dog to have been adopted from a shelter. Since moving in a week after the president’s inauguration in January, he “has been known to display agitated behaviour on multiple occasions, including jumping, barking, and ‘charging’ at staff and security”, CNN reported, citing two White House sources.
Champ, who is about 12, has “slowed down physically due to his advanced age”, CNN reported. He was adopted as a puppy in 2008 shortly after Biden was elected vice-president. The dogs are the first to occupy the White House since Bo, the Obamas’ dog. Donald Trump, who thought getting a dog would be “phoney”, was the first US president in a century not to have a canine companion.
Citing “a person familiar with the dogs’ schedule”, CNN reported that the dogs had been known to stay in Delaware when the first lady, Jill Biden, was there.
The Guardian has contacted the White House for comment.
Jill Biden told the singer and talkshow host Kelly Clarkson in a February interview that she was “obsessed with getting [the] dogs settled”.
The hounds’ Twitter account, The First Dogs of the United States, was as recently as Monday tweeting a photograph of Champ at the White House.
