Joe Biden’s dog bites another Secret Service agent

The two-year-old German shepherd has been involved in at least 11 biting incidents since joining the US first family in 2021.

US President Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden, with their dog Commander sharing a sofa. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

A US Secret Service agent is the latest person to be bitten by President Biden’s two-year-old German shepherd dog.

Commander has been involved in at least 11 biting incidents since joining the family in 2021, including one that left an officer in hospital. He arrived to replace another of Mr Biden’s dogs, Major, who also bit several White House staff and was dispatched to the family home in Delaware.

US President Joe Biden and dog Commander, who has been involved in at least 11 biting incidents since joining the family in 2011. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

“Yesterday around 8pm, a Secret Service uniformed division police officer came in contact with a first family pet and was bitten,” Steve Kopek, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said on Tuesday. “The officer was treated by medical personnel on [the] complex.”

Elizabeth Alexander, a spokeswoman for Jill Biden, said: “The White House can be a stressful environment for family pets. The first family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.”

Resident White House canine Commander is back in the doghouse after the Biden family pet bit another Secret Service agent. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Internal emails released by a conservative watchdog group this year detailed an agent grabbing a chair to use as a shield when Commander barked at him from the top of a White House staircase.

As Mr Biden, 80, steps up his 2024 campaign, White House aides are working on a project seen as critical to his hopes of re-election: to ensure he does not fall.

Mr Biden has been working with a physiotherapist for two years to improve his balance and has taken to wearing training shoes with his suit since he tripped over a sandbag and fell on stage at the Air Force Academy in June. After several stumbles while boarding Air Force One, he has used the shorter staircase to the executive jet.

Democrats fear a fall close to the election could be disastrous, Axios reported.

Polls show that three quarters of Americans believe he is too old to serve a second term. Mr Biden would be 86 by the time he left office after a second term.

Donald Trump, 77, the former president, has fared better, with only half considering the Republican frontrunner too old to return to the White House.