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