Presidential pooch Major Biden gets more training after nip

Tim Balk

President Biden’s rambunctious young German Shepherd, Major, will receive another round of training after a pair of biting incidents that put the presidential pet in the headlines.

The 3-year-old rescue dog appears to still be settling into life on Pennsylvania Ave., and he nipped someone while on a walk late last month, according to the White House.

“Major, the Bidens’ younger dog, will undergo some additional training to help him adjust to life in the White House,” Michael LaRosa, a spokesperson for First Lady Jill Biden, said in an email on Monday morning. “The off-site, private training will take place in the Washington, D.C. area, and it is expected to last a few weeks.”

A handler walks Major, one of President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden's dogs, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
A handler walks Major, one of President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden's dogs, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.


A handler walks Major, one of President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden's dogs, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. (MANDEL NGAN/)

The President has defended his playful pet and has noted Major’s popularity around the White House.

“He’s a sweet dog,” Biden said in an interview with ABC News last month. “Eighty-five percent of the people there love him. All he does is lick them and wag his tail.”

He also said Major hadn’t broken skin in the first biting incident of the administration. The President also has a 12-year-old German Shepherd named Champ.

But Major is known to be the more boisterous of the family pets, and Biden fractured his foot while playing with the pup in November.

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