All The President’s Dogs: Little Known Facts

  Posted on February 17, 2014  by joyofliving  No comments

It’s President’s Day, time to shine a light on the “First Dogs” past and present.  We found these bits of information on tablet.com and funtrivia.com, and thought we’d share.

• Our first president, George Washington, had hounds named Drunkard, Tipler and Tipsy.  Washington was such a dog lover that during the Revolutionary War, the opposing General’s dog was separated from his owner.  Upon finding the dog, Washington called a truce so dog and owner could be reunited.
• John Adam’s dogs had rather ominous names, Juno and Satan.
• James Buchanan had a Newfoundland named Lara.  Lara would often lie for hours with one eye open and one eye shut.
•  Abraham Lincoln, who would have turned 204 last week, left his Fido back in Illinois when he moved into the White House. Fido was the first Presidential dog to be photographed.  The photo is still on display at the Illinois State Historical Society.
• Ulysses S. Grant also had a Newfoundland, named Faithful.
• James A. Garfield, the nation’s 20th president, went for something more akin to humor, naming his dog Veto.
• Three presidents in a row had Airedale Terriers. Woodrow Wilson had an Airedale named Davie; Warren G. Harding’s was named Laddie Boy; and Calvin Coolidge’s was called Paul Pry.
• FDR had several Scottish Terriers, as well as a German Shepherd and a Great Dane at one point.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower had a Weimaraner named Heidi.
• John F. Kennedy requested that his dogs—two of them mixed breeds, a presidential first—greet his helicopter when he returned to the White House.
• LBJ’s dog, Yuki, attended cabinet meetings and danced at the wedding of Johnson’s daughter, Luci.

 

Photo Source:  Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons