First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends

United States presidential pets

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  • Presidential Pets
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    • Presidential Pets

    President Truman's reputation never recovered from his ill-judged decision to get rid of a darling little cocker spaniel puppy named Feller whom he'd been given for Christmas in Truman's "regifting" of Feller to the White House physician did not impress America's dog lovers. Feller became known as the Unwanted Dog. Bo Obama gets book deal. Checkers the spaniel to lie with Nixon.

    Sybil the cat sets up home in Number But on at least two occasions, dogs have been expertly deployed to save a president's or would-be president's scalp.

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    Perhaps the most famous of these was Richard Nixon's Checkers speech, so called because Checkers was the name of the black-and-white cocker spaniel he used to heart-rending effect in a TV broadcast defending himself against charges of corruption. Nixon, then a senator and a vice-presidential candidate, had been accused of misusing a fund set up for his political expenses. He responded by making an impassioned TV plea to the nation. But if there was one campaign donation he was determined to keep whatever anyone said, he declared, it was his dog Checkers. The idea, Nixon admitted, came from a similarly successful dog-related address made eight years earlier by president Franklin D Roosevelt.

    FDR was not a great orator, but he had a massive hit with his celebrated address known thereafter as the Fala speech, because it invoked his Scottish terrier Fala.

    Short for Murray the Outlaw of Fallahill, Fala was probably the most celebrated of all presidential dogs, and even has his own statue in Washington DC. During the Battle of the Bulge, GIs would test the identity of suspected German infiltrators by asking them to name the president's dog.

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    Naturally, then, when Republican rumours began to spread that the president had accidentally left Fala behind on a trip to the Aleutian Islands and had subsequently dispatched a destroyer at great expense to collect him, it became a national scandal. But right back to the days of George Washington's three American foxhounds, Drunkard, Tipler and Tipsy, dogs have been the presidential pet of choice.

    Fala also became an honorary army private.

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    His next escapade occurred when he bit a White House police officer in the groin. Manchu was owned by Alice Roosevelt and was a small black Pekingese which she received as a gift from the last Empress of China. Fido, suffered a violent death much like his master. Abraham Lincoln had a faithful dog named — naturally — Fido; Warren G Harding an Airedale named Laddie Boy, which had its own hand-carved cabinet chair to sit on in high-level meetings; John F Kennedy started the media-friendly tradition of the presidential dogs greeting the helicopter on the White House lawn; Lyndon B Johnson had a mongrel with whom he sang duets; Gerald Ford kept a golden retriever trained to signal to his aides with her tail when he wanted meetings to end; George HW Bush had a springer spaniel named Millie whose autobiography outsold her owner's. The idea, Nixon admitted, came from a similarly successful dog-related address made eight years earlier by president Franklin D Roosevelt. Davis was particularly pleased with the dog and was known to have carried it with him in his pocket. For the origin of the domestic dog, see corresponding article.

    He received this honor by contributing one dollar to the war effort setting a trend for the rest of the US. Fala is depicted in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

    A Boy and His Pup - Kid President & The First Dog

    Meggie, the other Terrier, was infamous as she once bit a senator! Manchu was owned by Alice Roosevelt and was a small black Pekingese which she received as a gift from the last Empress of China. Truman owned a mongrel called Feller and an Irish Setter named Mike.

    Truman is attributed with the following quotes: Eisenhower owned a Weimaraner named Heidi. Kennedy owned the following dogs: Kennedy was the first president to request that his dogs meet the presidential helicopter when the president arrived at the White House. Soviet Premier Kruschev gave him a dog named Pushinka who was the offspring of the Russian space dog Strelka.

    Pushinka often made the President laugh by climbing up the ladder to Caroline's tree house.

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    Johnson owned 7 dogs: He always shook hands with the dog whenever he left or returned to the White House His favorite dog, the beagle called Him, was run over and killed on the White House grounds. Edgar Hoover gave him a dog t o replace Him which he named J. White Collies Peter Pan: Airedale Terrier Calamity Jane: Shetland Sheepdog Tiny Tim and Blackberry: Chow Chows Ruby Rouch: German Shepherd Palo Alto: President King Tut: German Shepherd Big Ben and Sonnie: Irish Wolfhound Eaglehurst Gillette: Old English Sheepdog President: Mutt gift of Russian premier, puppy of Soviet space dog Strelka Shannon: Irish Cocker Spaniel Wolf: