Breaking: First Dog Is "Crazy," Says First Lady

washingtonpost. ^

[JoeProBono]

Secrets of FiDOTUS revealed! Bo is "crazy," a senior White House official divulged yesterday. The newly arrived Portuguese water pup "likes to chew on people's feet" and cause commotions. "Oh, he is a crazy dog," the official confirmed. Uh, wait -- turns out this was all on the record. So we can tell you the canine briefing was delivered by none other than Michelle Obama to a young audience assembled at the White House for the annual Take Your Kids to Work Day, reports our colleague Richard Leiby. The first lady disclosed that Bo made such a racket the night before that she and the president thought someone was lurking outside their bedroom. "It was just Bo. He was playing with his ball."

[napscoordinator]

He might let us know something when he speaks to the American people on Wednesday night AGAIN!!!! Yes it is true he is going to speak during PRIME TIME again. American Idol be damned I guess...UGH!!!

[MortMan]

Well, to be fair, that’s the first time she’s been lei’d in a loooooonng time! ;-P

[verity]

ROTFLMAO.

[freekitty]

You have a beautiful baby. Had three of those when I was young. They are a great breed.

[reformedliberal]

Our Akita was a show-up and he hates crates and Dogloos. He totally destroyed his Dogloo within two days, chewing it, picked it up in his teeth (at 5 months!) and rolling it down a slope. He would not use a crate willingly, whined incessantly when put into one and finally would become an immovable object if the word was even uttered. Solution: we fenced off a large area for him that includes the 3-season porch, which is up on short pilings, creating a den. That is his place and he prefers it. Last night, we had thunder and our bedroom has a skylight. He, as usual, began that high-pitched teakettle whine until he was let out and he raced under the porch.

I don’t know about PWDs, but Akitas have very strong jaws and must chew when young to set their teeth firmly into the socket. I have seen him go up to a bush, tear out a medium-sized branch and then contentedly sit down to chew on it. You have to provide a lot of hard chew toys for them or they will chew down the entire house. We discovered that deer legs are the odds-on favorite for this (but the zerOs will never be able to provide that sort of chew toy!). It is not a behavior issue, it is hard-wired and natural for some breeds.

You do not expect to take a working breed and turn it into a lap dog without a lot of training. Bo needs something to do which will satisfy his drive for productive work. For our boy, it is being the official announcer, greeter and escort of clients and visitors. He also needs to be bonded with his pack and to understand that he is a beloved omega, with the rest of the pack as Alphas, sub-Alphas or packmates. In our case (our baby is now 9 and is also named Bo, for Hobo Lobo, because he looks wolf-like and just showed up), it took several daily sessions of 10-15 minutes each (he has a short attention span) of Puppy Kindergarten interspersed with lots of play, lots of leash walks, lots of unleashed hikes away from the road, chances to swim supervised in the river, etc to turn him into an acceptable member of the pack. It took about 6 weeks to accomplish this, as he is quite independent and stubborn. It also took a lot of love.

This dog has issues and the zerOs need to find out what they are and deal with them creatively. However, I expect that, instead, Bo will be returned again.

[Broker]

Fine brindle. We are on our fourth. The heart of the good dog!!

[AnAmericanMother]

Akitas are a different breed of cat from Labs. And you're absolutely right that there's no 'one size fits all' with all the dog breeds. What works for one won't work for another -- even within individual breeds.

But I sure would start by trying a crate with a PWD puppy. And given that it's already had six months of obedience training, odds are it's already been crate trained.

With Labs I'm fortunate that their driving force is not independence but a tremendous desire to please. Even my wild young field dog wants to make me happy -- she just gets a little too exuberant about it as a general rule.

The judge in her last hunt test said that he knew she was a live wire when she got thirty feet of air from a sitting start on the water blind . . . . unfortunately she broke at the water double and didn't pass, but that's life. We knew she was a pistol when we got her!

[reformedliberal]

You are right about the breeds. Many trainers will not even consider Akitas for field training, as they may take it into their heads to go off and do something else, lay down for a nap or dismantle the course while grinning happily and ignoring all commands.

Our guy was obviously crate trained....he just hated it. He knew immediately what it was when we set it up and took off as far away as he could get.

I spent a full day online learning about Akitas. I almost gave him to the local shelter, but instead, took the time to get into his head and help him become civilized. He has turned into a wonderful dog and will now subordinate his independence to *Mom*. Now that he is old, he prefers laying at our feet and getting belly rubs to almost everything else. He is well-known in our community and everyone is thrilled when he gives them hugs and woo-woos as a greeting.

I think almost every dog can be trained. We have had one psycho puppy in all our years of owning dogs and his history was just too overwhelming for the training to work. The zerOs’ dog is on its second home and has spent a lot of time at the breeder's. He may not be able to bond again to a new pack, IMO.

[BlueMondaySkipper]

Was this dog vetted properly?

That's the question I had..

Perhaps they should check his papers to see if his ancestry is what they were told it is. I heard they were going to but the breeder hired a law firm to keep the records sealed.

[AnAmericanMother]

The sporting breeds as a general rule will bond readily.

My nine year old Choc will happily work obedience, agility, or retriever for anybody. We had a lady come to an agility class to see what it was like and if she wanted to bring her dog. I asked her if she wanted to run Shelley, and she looked at me, and I said, "Don't worry, she'll run for anybody." Shelley looked over her shoulder once, I said, "It's o.k., go with her," and she never looked back and ran like a pro. She has done double retrieves and blinds for people who have never had a dog, let alone run a hunt test.

She's a real schmoozer too and will wallow at your feet in hopes of a belly rub.

[Kimberly GG]

Your baby is adorable ;)

I feel sorry for Obama’s puppy...I imagine they will have to hire someone to do all the training, feeding, walking, etc., but I don’t ever see the family having the time to become real pack leaders.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Betcha they’re getting ready to throw the dog under the bus, and this story is just laying the groundwork.

[Darnright]

>The dog was given back to the kennel once...I imagined when I heard that the dog might be a hyper little puppy. Didn’t I read that Kennedy sent it to his dog trainer?<

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Earth to Obama, it’s a WORKING breed. In other words, it needs a job or it’s going to burn off its energy some way. Not only that, its first home found out this pup is a bit more dog than average.

But of course, heaven forbid this oh-so-politically-correct family ask a breeder to choose a less energetic puppy from a litter. Oh, no, they must have a “rescue”. Well, many dogs end up in rescue because they have, shall we say, quirks.

[AnAmericanMother]

Rescues can be o.k. (they're sometimes turned in on account of divorce, kid going to college, moving, etc.) but a lot of times they have issues -- that's why they're rescues.

What they SHOULD have done is get a retired brood bitch from a reputable breeder. I have recommended that route for several families who weren't really dog savvy and didn't want to go through the whole Labrador puppy thing.

Good compromise -- they're providing a home for a dog who needs to retire, but they get an older, more mellow dog that's already well trained.

My Chocolate Lab's father has retired from stud to a home in Florida where he rides in the boat every day and lies around and looks regal. He's a show dog, couldn't find a bird in a phone booth if you poured gravy on it, but he is the sweetest, most mellow boy in the world and great with kids.

[Darnright]

>What they SHOULD have done is get a retired brood bitch from a reputable breeder. <

I absolutely do not disagree. That said, surely you don’t think, given the degree of political correctness in this case, they would have ever gone this route. Add into the fact that the girls want a puppy, and this is what you get. Clueless dog owners. Marley redux, despite access to the finest dog trainers in the country.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, a retired brood bitch is (1) not that old (generally retired once a breeder has a litter or two and has the genetic material in the bloodlines, unless she's an absolutely stellar producer. I'm trying right now to help place a retired girl who is about 2 1/2.) (2) in need of "rescue", at least arguably, although most hobby breeders treat their producers like family.

With a puppyish breed like a Lab, you could pass a 2 year old off as an "older puppy". They sure act like it!

That Marley book just makes me cringe. I will never see the movie because the book made me so sad. The clueless owners were WARNED by the breeder (and by seeing the high octane dad) and insisted on getting the high powered field pup. I have one of those (Marley squared), and she needs her two miles a day and four every other day, plus field work on Wednesdays and weekends. That makes her tolerable to an Old Dog Hand. She would tear the White House to little tiny shreds in the hands of inexperienced owners.

Too Much Dog.

[Andonius_99]

GHEY...

[dawn53]

We have three dogs, and the last guy we rescued was one of those that had been in a situation he never should have been placed in.

His former family, when their baby turned 1, evidently got a cute blue eyed puppy, a Weimaraner. They never exercised him obviously because when we got him his pads on his paws were still pink. They proceeded to have another baby, so then they had a 1 year old and a 3 year old, and a 90 lb 2 year old Weim with more energy than he knew what to do with. I imagine it was a nightmare with the little kids and big dog. So they turned him into the SPCA which was definitely the best thing to do before one of the kids got knocked down or hurt.

Anyhoo, in the right family (no little kids to knock over and other dogs to play with), he’s a great pet, a big lap dog, and just needs the right amount of exercise every day to keep him “mellow” in the house.

[potlatch]

I doubt if either of the Obama’s have ever had a dog before in their lives. It's a puppy and a puppy is going to get into all kinds of things.

They will send it to the ‘servant's quarters’ if it keeps bothering them at night, lol.

[devolve]

.

They have never had a dog

It is all just for more positive ratings