It's silly, but I get so grumpy at jokes about the white house dog Major. He's not aggressive! He's a very very old good boye who was taken from a stable and relatively quiet home to a public place of utter chaos!

Any dog can bite in the right circumstances, man.

I just don't think it's helpful to divide dogs into "aggressive" and "not." That's the kind of thing that makes someone yell "don't worry, my dog is friendly! he's never hurt anyone before!" while you're pulling your bloody arm out of the dog's mouth.

Folks need to have reasonable expectations for a dog's behavior.

Especially old dogs, whose rising pain levels and failing senses make them much likelier to injure someone.

You will never convince me that Major isn't an angel.

So it is very, very silly, but this is one of my pet issues (ba dum tss) and I get prickly and annoyed every time people make jokes at Major's expense. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

This thread brought to you by a combination of watching Seth Meyers (who I love) making jokes about Major the last several weeks, while I am cuddling my ancient miniature schnauzer, who WILL bite you and IS a very good boy.