From the moment Donald Trump’s presidency began, he was lacking something. But Joe Biden is about to make up for it — twice over.
Trump was the first president in more than a century not to have a dog in the White House. Biden’s German shepherds Champ, 12, and two-year-old Major will be filling the vacancy left by Barack Obama’s Portuguese water dogs, Bo and Sunny, and continuing a tradition of First Dogs that can trace its pedigree back to George Washington.
Far from being mere political poodles, many First Dogs have made history in their own right. Calvin Coolidge’s collie Rob Roy was the first dog to feature in an official First Family portrait, which still hangs in the China Room, while George W. Bush’s Scottie, Barney, gave a dog’s-eye view of Washington life with ‘Barneycam’, a series of videos so popular they crashed the White House website.
Barney wasn’t the only First Dog with a taste for the media (sometimes too literally — he had a reputation for biting reporters).
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