The Best-Behaved and Worst-Behaved Airedales in White House History

Two Airedales. Same bloodline. Half-brothers, actually. Both ended up living in the White House within a few years of each other.

One got his own chair at cabinet meetings. The other got sent to the Marines.

If you read my last newsletter, then you'd remember that we met Davie last week. The quiet Airedale who kicked off a three-president streak. Today we get to the loud half of the family, and the contrast is the whole story.

The Good Brother

Laddie Boy belonged to President Warren Harding, and he was the original celebrity dog. He was the first presidential pet to get regular newspaper coverage, he attended fundraisers and golfed with the President, and yes, he had his own hand-carved chair at cabinet meetings. When he passed, newsboys across the country donated pennies to cast a bronze statue of him. Laddie Boy was, by any measure, a very good boy.

Then came his half-brother.

Paul Pry belonged to President Calvin Coolidge, and he arrived at the White House under the name Laddie Buck. First Lady Grace Coolidge watched him for a few days and renamed him Paul Pry, after a nosy busybody character from an old play. That should tell you everything about how those first few days went.

Paul was, to put it kindly, a handful. He snapped at ankles. A newspaper of the day flat out called him a bad pet. Grace herself described him as perfectly uncontrollable, a great overgrown awkward puppy, and said watching him in the sitting room was like watching the proverbial bull in a china shop.

He was so fiercely protective of her that when she sent her maid into the bedroom to grab a forgotten item, Paul leapt across the room and bit her, sending the poor woman running.

Here is the part I love. Grace didn't give him up. She loved that maniac. She just started muzzling him. And when his manners somehow got worse, in 1925 he was shipped off to a detachment of Marines known as the Devil Dogs for some intensive training. He was from the same litter as the dog with the cabinet chair. But a COMPLETELY different animal.

If you have ever raised dogs from the same line, you already know where I'm going.

Parallels to my Airedales

When I went to pick Fleetwood, there were two boys in front of me. Fleetwood made eye contact the second I walked in, jumped in front of his brother, and gave me a smooch. Then he tried to untie my shoelaces and later joined me for cocktail hour at the hotel bar. His full name is Fleetwood's Great Imagination, and nothing has ever fit a dog better.

His littermate, Teddy, napped the entire time I was there. Content as could be. Didn't need a thing from anybody.

Two brothers, one curled up sleeping and one already plotting his arrival, and somehow I looked at the one untying my laces and thought yes, that one, that's the one I want.

Fleetwood is the most high-drive Airedale I have ever owned. He's funny, he's smart, he's protective of me to a fault, and he has been sent off to boot camp not once but twice.

The second time was the charm. I say his name more than any other word in my house, which he takes as a tremendous compliment but absolutely should not.

Paul Pry and Fleetwood would have been instant best friends. I'm fairly sure the rest of us would not have survived it.

Here's the thing nobody tells you about bringing a dog into your life. The average dog owner doesn't get to pick the personality. You pick a face, you fall for a twinkle in the eye, and then you spend the next decade loving whoever shows up.

Grace Coolidge got Paul Pry. I got Fleetwood. Neither of us would trade them, despite their quirks.

That's the same soft spot that built Happy Aire. It started with one Airedale named Grover, and it runs straight through every loud, loyal, impossible dog that came after him.

Next Friday is our Paws & Stripes finale, and we close the campaign with the Airedales who earned it. The war heroes. The breed that carried messages through the trenches and saved a battalion. Bring a tissue for that one.

Until then, give your most exhausting dog an extra scratch today. They're trying their best.

Mostly.

-Kim Opdyke