The Bidens got lucky with Major, because it sounds like there might have been a chemical in his former home??? He was exposed to something
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_(dog) Major (born January 17, 2018) is a German Shepherd owned by Joe Biden's family.[2][3] Major, who was born in 2018, is the first shelter dog to live in the White House.[4][5] Previously, President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie had also owned two German Shepherds.[6]
Major was a rescue from a litter that had been exposed to "something toxic" in their home,[1] and their owner was unable to afford the expense of veterinary care for them.[4][6] He was fostered by the Bidens earlier that year from the Delaware Humane Association's shelter and has been with them since late 2018. On the day Joe Biden adopted the dog from the shelter, he stayed "telling stories and taking selfies with staffers" for over an hour.[4] The origin of Major's name is not publicly known, but Beau Biden, Joe Biden's son, was a major in the Delaware National Guard.[6][7][8]
These are the dogs available here. You can see these dogs are going to need lots of work and most have behavior issues.
https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs/ACS_website_PetsNeedPlacement_Dog.pdf
https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs/ACS_website_4Wks_7Wks_Dog.pdf
https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs/ACS_website_MomWPups_Dog.pdf
https://www.sanantonio.gov/acs/ACS_website_FosterInventory_Dog.pdf
https://sahumane.org/adopt-a-dog
Also, not publicized is rescues here sweep up desirable dogs daily from Animal Care Services and ship them to other states before the public can get them. They get first dibs on dogs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/sunday-review/adopt-rescue-dog-south.htmlHOUSTON — Jonathan Martinez was standing near an empty cage at the municipal animal shelter here looking dejected. A 25-year-old accountant, he was getting married soon and he and his fiancée wanted to make a dog a part of their new life together. But every time he saw a dog he liked on an online database of lost or abandoned pets, it would be gone by the time he got to the shelter.
Holding up his phone to show screenshots of two adorable terrier mix puppies, Mr. Martinez said, “I saw them when I checked the website this morning but the rescue people took them before the shelter even opened.” A shelter employee apologized and told him the rescue group was shipping the puppies to Colorado for adoption.
........
As a result, animal rescue has become a “retail operation,” said Greg Damianoff, director of the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, Houston’s municipal shelter. Rescue groups have been known to duke it out over the most desirable dogs like shoppers over a marked-down Armani gown. “You get a maltipoo in here and you’re likely to see a blood bath,” he said.
The hot commodities are the smaller, scruffy or fluffy dogs like the puppies Mr. Martinez was after. Shelters bundle loads of these dogs, known as the “cute and cuddlies” or easy-to-flip “flipper puppers,” with larger, older Labrador or pit bull mixes that are harder to move.
Also many rescues require home visits and all sorts of leaps and hurdles. When my mother in law obtained a rescue it was like adopting a human. With the Bidens being in the WH, I can see rescues turning them down. Even the president was of Humane Society was rejected!
But that view is increasingly being challenged by groups including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — whose own president and chief executive, Matthew Bershadker, says he was turned down when he and his family looked for a dog about a year and a half ago. In fact, he was rejected twice.
Once, he said, it was because the dog they had settled on was offered by an out-of-state group that required a pre-adoption home inspection. It didn’t have anyone to send to Bershadker’s residence in New York, so that was that. The second time, he said, “they simply said, ‘You work too much.’ Despite assurances of a dog walker . . . and a fenced yard, and I mean, it was kind of crazy.”
Bershadker and his family wanted an adult dog that was good with kids and other animals. An ASPCA staff member in Texas found “a perfect match,” he recalled — but even then, Bershadker had to travel to Texas to interview with the group before adopting Tarzan, a Labrador mix, in 2016.
It was an eye-opening experience, he said. If the process is this hard for the leader of one of the nation’s largest animal charities, “it’s clearly overly restrictive,” Bershadker said. “We have 1.5 million animals dying in shelters in our country, and these groups are putting barriers in between homes and their animals.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/02/02/millions-of-dogs-need-homes-why-is-it-sometimes-hard-to-adopt-one/Commander has been raised with love and respect and I'm 100% sure, he will get the proper training at the WH. Dogs are alot like another child. This dog rescue stuff is a rabbit hole of mine. It's really kinda crazy. I support responsible breeding. Most dogs available for rescue around here are strays and/or the results of low income people who don't bother to spay or neuter and allow their dogs to roam. The dogs are kept in backyards and generally lack training. Most are large breeds. Many are not housebroken (trainer notes will say if they are, many are heartworm positive), many have behavior issues (fearful, dog aggressive, cat aggressive etc) They are not the result of responsible breeders. Also rescues will take in some of these "last chance" dogs, but many times, they end up getting surrendered again. It's really a sad situation.
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