Who’s in charge?

Dogs. They are wonderful, you know. They love to be part of their pack. Their pack includes you. They like to know the pecking order. They look for a leader. If they don’t have a leader, they become a leader.

This brings me to the question of who is in charge as the leader in the White House when Bo is around. It appears that Bo is.

I have been forced to endure a plethora of photos of Bo with his new family.

Bo supposedly spent a month with a trainer. Not bad for a “rescue … cough cough, cough.

The thing is, if Bo spent a month with a trainer, then someone needs to explain why it is that Bo is dragging everybody’s ass around the White House grounds in just about every photo taken.

There can only be one of two explanations: Bo went to a trainer who did nothing with him……..or Bo got to Pennsyvania Avenue and figured out that the rest of his pack are weak and there isn’t a real leader among them, so he’s the Leader now. Therefore, all past training no longer counts. And nobody has trained Bo’s people on how to handle a dog. That’s a huge part of dog training. Mostly, the trainer trains you. If you don’t know what to do, the dog will do what he thinks is best. Thus, Bo is now officially in charge. That isn’t going to go over very well for very long over in Narcissist Land. Witness, Bo walking Michelle in the above photo. And Bo isn’t anywhere near full grown yet. Bo is too much dog for the Obamas and that’s an understatement.

I love my dog. I know her body language. She is always telling me something. She looks at me. I know when she’s happy and I know when she has a problem. I take her to parades. I take her to romp in the woods. I run with her. She comes to the pet store with me and picks out her toys. I bring her to the homes of friends and she is always welcome. I want her around and she knows it. She has a half dozen different barks, from “I need a walk now” to “Something wicked this way walks, let me handle this”–and I know what every one of those barks means. When I am with her, I feel safe. When she is with me, she feels safe. If you come to my yard you will invariably run into some toys, a beach ball and a rubber pool. My dog and I never stop training one another. We know each other. She knows her pack of people and other pets, and she knows her position in that pack. She knows who the Leader is and that would be Me. One command from me, softly spoken, is her command. She protects her family, she loves her family and always, she knows what is expected of her. And we know what she expects from us. It’s not that I’m a superior dog owner. It’s just that I took the time to learn, and to give my dog what she needs–and in turn she returns the favor. We have a relationship. In other words, I really wanted a dog when I got her. That is why you will never see my dog dragging me across the lawn while I choke her with her leash.

You see, dogs don’t really much care if you are famous or not. Bo doesn’t even know or care that he just got shipped to the President of the United States. What’s more, if he did know, he wouldn’t give a crap. He’s not interested in photo ops either. He’s interested in being part of a family. He’s interested in being The Family Dog. He’s interested in being The Family Portuguese Water Dog, in fact. I’m looking at all these shots of Bo and I can honestly say by the body language of everyone concerned, Bo included, that Bo is about to have a problem. Bo also lives where people can disappear him. He could land alone in his Kennel a lot more than he wants to. Since he is showing leadership over the people in the White House, this isn’t going to go over well. Bo will be blamed that he doesn’t have a leader and became one instead. He will never sleep on somebody’s bed if this keeps up. Not that any of us envisions that he will ever be allowed to do that anyways.

Bo is going to be a big boy. And at six months, allowing him to drag people around on a leash is not a good idea. He won’t forget how to do this when he’s an adult. In other words, if these two quasi-adults think they are being dragged now, they haven’t seen anything yet. This is going to be a problem for Bo. He’s just being a dog. He’s got no leader, so somebody has to do the job. Still, he’s going to want to be with His Family. He’s going to want to go on those trips where there is water. He is, after all, a Portuguese Water Dog. That’s why Teddy has PWDs. Teddy takes his dogs with him on the yacht and on the sail boat and Teddy is a water person. This is a seafaring dog, strong-willed, every energetic and in need of some adventure. This is a dog that won’t adapt to being an ornament. He is not for the limp of wrist dog owner who has never had a dog in his life. You can tell that Teddy really loves his dogs and is in control. On the other paw, do we really envision Bo going along on Obama vacations where Dad can surf, choking and dragging everyone into the water? Really? We are talking about two people who have never owned a dog. That in itself is kind of strange, but then again, I am an animal lover. I can’t even imagine living into your mid -40s and never having lived with a pet. If you haven’t gotten around to it by then, you are just not a pet person. I also have never known a person who wanted a dog so badly that it took over a year to actually get one.

Bo’s only hope will be the Obama girls. But then again, if they are never given the opportunity to be Bo’s kids beyond the photo ops, then the bond will never occur. Malia looks like Bo’s Chance. She actually has a look of joy upon her face here. I must confess that there is something about this young lady that I like. She should be sent with Bo to a trainer where she can learn to be Bo’s Person and Leader and Companion. That dog will want to sleep at the foot of her bed. Somehow, I don’t envision Michelle and Barack , two people who never had the desire to have a dog until they moved to the White House, going for that, but maybe Malia will intervene.

Poor Bo. Unless Malia intervenes, in a few weeks when all the photo ops are over and the publicity wears off, Bo will be seen walking along the back acre with his Kennel Master, hired to feed and walk him. He will be trotted out for occasional photo ops and drag his owners along again. But you see, dogs don’t lie. Up to this point, I haven’t seen a single shot of Bo trying to kiss anybody. His tail is always down. He’s not looking at anyone’s face. He’s chomping at the bit, straining at the leash, contorting himself to get moving away. He looks like he just wants to get away from everybody and run. I see no shots of anybody on the ground actually playing with Bo. There are no toys hanging around in the shots. Just Bo, dragging one of his pack along.

Bo is an ornament. Bo isn’t going to like that. Bo should have been a goldfish. This is one time I wish to be proved wrong. Not for them, but for Bo–and maybe even for Malia.

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As a side note, I thought you might all like to know about two of those Presidents Barack Obama fancies himself similar to–and their pets.

Here’s FDR with his dog Fala. Fala went everywhere FDR went, long trips, short trips, meetings. Every morning, Fala was delivered a bone on the President’s breakfast tray. Falah slept in her own special chair at the foot of FDR’s bed. FDR truly loved animals. You can bet he had pets long before he became President.

Here is JFK and family with part of their menagerie of pets. The Kennedys were animal lovers long before they moved to the White House.

There is one President who is a bit of a disappointment in the pet department. Harry Truman was given the cocker spaniel puppy as a gift. “Feller” didn’t fare so well and the American public let Harry know just how awful they thought he was when it came to “Feller”. Not a lucky White House dog at all. According to the Presidential Pets Museum:

Feller, a beautiful blond Cocker Spaniel, was an unsolicited 1947 Christmas gift to President Truman. The Trumans elected to give the puppy to the White House physician, Brigadier General Wallace Graham. Dog lovers around the country attacked the President as being anti-canine. Dr. Graham, soon tiring of the press and publicity, decided to get rid of the dog. He had Truman’s Naval Aide, Adm. James K. Foskett, take Feller to Shangri-La (Camp David). As the camp was not open to the press this seemed to end the Feller story, until now. The Admiral left Feller with the chief-in-charge, Quartermaster Chief George A. Poplin. When Poplin was transferred, Charles G. Ross, President Truman’s secretary, came to camp and told Poplin to leave the dog there. Poplin was relieved as chief-in-charge by Damage Control Chief Ralph O. Loften, who in turn was relieved by Chief Boatswain Robert W. Lyle.

In 1953, while Chief Lyle was being transferred to Italy, he sought permission from Naval Aide Admiral Robert L. Dennison to take Feller. Permission was granted, provided that no mention be made that the dog once belonged to Truman. Robert gave Feller to his father, Archie Otis Lyle, who owned a farm just outside Greenfield, Ohio. There Feller lived for many happy years until he died of old age.

Not good, Harry. Not good at all. This story forever changed my entire opinion of you.