Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/22/joe-bidens-dog-bit-secret-service-agents-at-least-24-times.html
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Wow, Commander wasn’t on the scene until 2021, and was announced to the public on the very same day that that they announced that Major was leaving. So you would think that the experience with Major would have led the Bidens and their advisers to avoid adopting another large dog without it already been shown to be really docile and friendly.
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Commander could use some one on one time with the dog whisperer.
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Send the dog to Mara Lardo with a bag of treats
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Have the Secret Service loyalty concerns been addressed?
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On the plus side imagine how dangerous it would be for a would-be assassin to approach President Biden.
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Umm - much less dangerous if the SS guards were keeping a much safer distance, and the assassin had some dog treats! 
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Assassin: You should have kept your Secret Service agents closer at hand, Mr. President.
Biden: [casually donning aviator glasses] I think you misunderstand, son. They were never there to protect me from you. They were there to protect you from him.
Assassin: [Looks down just in time to see a blur of fur and teeth snatch his gun hand right off the end of his wrist]
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[Comment based on lived experience and training removed because it doesn’t match other peoples lived experience and training.]
Rather than doubling down on my wrongness, here is a little, tiny, stupid joke.
“24? that’s barely 4 human bites”
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So one of two things:
An aggressive dog who is prone to biting and in desperate need of some high end training.
or
Secret Service agents were fucking with him or otherwise causing stress and anxiety and he lashed out in defense.
If his removal from the White House alone ceased his behavior, then that might clue us on in which it was. 
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I love dogs and have a couple shepherds of my own but that’s a very victim-blamey approach to dog biting incidents.
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The SS was under Trump’s direct control for four years, much of whom are still in their jobs, and is known to be a hotbed of the kind of people who think that belonging to a “Secret Service” is unironically cool. Dogs are, in general, capable of judging a person’s character quite well, and often take defensive action when they perceive hostility, bad character, or a lack of respect for their human.
These are good doggos, defending their human against the evil men who surround him, protecting him from those who would, if they could, do him harm.
/s
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It’s not a value judgement.
Dogs give a lot of cues before they bite, we are just bad at seeing them. Whale eye, lip lifting, even yawning are all signs that a dog is agitated. If they send you all the signals that they don’t like what’s going on, and you persist and it bites you, that’s on you. That doesn’t make you a “victim” of a dog bite, or a bad person, just someone who missed the cues.
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Again, as someone who has lived with dogs most of my life I think that’s an overly simplistic and victim-blamey view of dog biting incidents.
Lots of people who did absolutely nothing to antagonize a dog end up victims of dog attacks, and in the case of a Secret Service agent they may not have a choice about continuing the behavior that bothers the dog if the dog is upset by something like “big men standing too close to master.”
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Sorry, that’s just absolutely not true. I’ve had two children bitten numerous times and only one time did the dogs give any warning. They were just either irritable old rat dogs (who still managed to break skin) or a dog defending a sofa cushion against an 18 month old. I was attacked once by a pit bull who, never having seen me before ran two blocks at a full gallop and lunged at me. The only things that protected me were that I was wearing a thick coat and stuck my elbow in his snapping jaws. He immediately ran across the street to another random person and attacked him (dude got into a boxing stance 
). I’ve also seen a dude’s nutsack torn open when he just happened to turn a corner at the same time a young couple was walking their “rescue”. Dog instantly bites his crotch and tears a 1/2” x 1/2” l-shaped hole in just walking pouch (btw, balls look like fish bladders, apparently). Most of these instances were instantaneous (no warning) and unprovoked.
Most dogs are just fine, but there are more than enough that will randomly attack someone, especially a child with little to no provocation. People love to anthropomorphize animals, especially dogs, but it’s usually only the good parts we ascribe them. Just as humans, they can be reactive, lacking in judgement, and completely at the whims of their emotions.
(Don’t mean to pile on, I didn’t see @Brainspore’s comments prior)
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This isn’t the case 100% of the time. I got bitten by a dog for the first time in my life about a year ago, with no warning.
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This. Human beings often exhibit some kind of “warning” before a physical attack but we don’t scold victims of human-on-human violence for “ignoring the signals” or “persisting in antagonistic behavior.” (Well, some do, but those people are generally assholes.)
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Perhaps most dogs do indeed give such signals.
Most people don’t know how to read most such signals - even if they notice them. Kids certainly do not.
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Agreed. A decent dog training course is more about training people how to read dogs rather than getting a dog to obey.
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