Photos obtained by the Daily Mail reportedly show President Joe Biden’s German Shepherd, Commander, nipping at a White House staff member.
White House sources asserted on Monday that the two-year-old dog targets members of the president’s security detail based on their “unfriendly expressions,” the outlet reported. Dale Haney, 71, the staff member in the photo, is not part of Biden’s security team. He was reportedly playing with the dog.
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Biden’s dog has a taste for blood! pic.twitter.com/E58eYWCm6Q
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 4, 2023
The photo appears to show the dog biting Haney in the arm in the White House gardens on Sept. 13. A tourist captured the image while shopping in the White House gift shop, the outlet noted.
“I was really just wanting to take pictures of the dog, it’s the next best thing to seeing the president after all,” the unnamed person told the Daily Mail. “Commander was bouncing around. He seemed very lively, high-spirited and playful. He’s a good-looking dog.”
“I only realized he had actually bitten the groundskeeper who was out there with him later when I saw the picture with his teeth quite clearly round the man’s wrist and arm,” the photographer continued. (RELATED: KJP Says Biden’s Dog Commander Bites Because White House Is Too Stressful).
Haney has worked for the White House for over 50 years, often walking the presidential pets. He started with Richard Nixon’s Irish Setter King Timahoe, the outlet reported.
“Perhaps it was meant as a playful nip but that’s a big dog to be behaving like that,” the witness told the outlet. “To me, that’s a bite.”
Reports previously surfaced that Commander bit a Secret Service Agent, which caused the agent to seek medical attention.
The most serious incident involving the presidential pup happened on Nov. 3, 2022, when he bit a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer on the arm. The officer was transported to a local hospital.
So far, there have been 12 reported attacks by the dog on staff members.