WASHINGTON – The Bidens’ 3-year-old German Shepherd Major was involved in an incident on Monday in which he ‘was surprised by an unknown person and reacted in a way that resulted in a minor injury to the individual’, said White House press secretary Jen said. Psaki told reporters on Tuesday.
The White House medical unit handled the incident, she said, adding that “no further treatment is needed.” She did not want to say whether an agent of the secret service was involved in the incident.
Major and the older family’s older German shepherd, Champ, have been sent home to the Bidens’ Wilmington, Delaware, and are being watched by family friends, who according to Psaki are planned because first lady Jill Biden is traveling this week.
“Earlier, it was planned that the dogs would be cared for by family friends in Delaware during Dr. Biden’s trips to military bases this week,” she said during the White House briefing. “She has a three-day trip this week, and the dogs will return to the White House soon.”
Psaki noted that the dogs are “still getting used to and accustomed to their new environment and new people.”
The press secretary said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that it is typical for the dogs to be in Delaware when Jill Biden is traveling. The first lady is in Washington state as part of a West Coast trip to visit military bases and meet with relatives of service members and is not expected to return until Wednesday.
The Bidens adopted Major of the Delaware Humane Association in 2018 after he and five other puppies were exposed to a toxic substance, and he is the first shelter dog to live in the White House. The Bidens got Champ as a puppy in 2008 before moving into the Vice President’s official residence at the Naval Observatory.
Both dogs were seen outside the White House with the Bidens, and President Joe Biden recently noted that the dogs have access to the oval office.
Jill Biden said she plans to add a cat to the first pets, but Psaki said during the briefing Tuesday that she did not have an update on the cat front. “Today is a good day for the cat. I have no update on the cat. We know the cat will break the internet, but I have no update on its status,” she said.
Major is not the only German shepherd by name who has faced biting accusations in the White House.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dog Major “was known for stalking White House girls to the point of having to use their brooms and dust mops to keep him at a distance,” according to the Presidential Pet Museum.
That major, a former police dog, almost caused an international incident when British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald visited the White House during his first year in FDR.
“Major’s attack on the minister’s trousers was so powerful that MacDonald’s trousers were almost ripped off, and a replacement pair had to be found so he could leave the presidential residence properly,” author Stanley Coren wrote in his book, “The Pawprints of Human History. “
MacDonald was not the previous major’s only sensational victim. Former first daughter Margaret Truman wrote in her book “White House Pets” that Major bruised the leg of Senator Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to the Senate the same year.
After biting a third unidentified person, Major was ‘chained to the dog house’ for a while.
Major, Coren wrote, was then ‘banished to the FDR’s mansion in Hyde Park’.
Peter Alexander, Kelly O’Donnell and Geoff Bennett contributed.