Bo

I guess it's good for the public to think about the benefits of having a dog, and President Obama's little pooch is pretty cute, but nonetheless, I was disappointed that they didn't get a shelter dog.

When a pure-bred dog, especially an unusual breed, appears in the public eye through a film or through a celebrity owning one, the popularity of that breed tends to go up. The knock on effect of this is another story, but think what a positive step it would be rescue mutts suddenly became a must-have pet. Shelters would see lots of lovely, deserving animals go to good homes, and unscrupulous breeders would lose out.

The story goes that one of the Obama kids has an allergy to dog hair. Portuguese water dogs are, then, a good compromise and I don't suppose there are many Portuguese water dogs sitting in shelters....yet.