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Lyndon B. Johnson provoked a firestorm of animal-cruelty accusations when he picked up his beagles, Him and Her, by their ears so that photographers could get a better shot. Dog owners complained, but Johnson had a characteristic answer: "To make them bark is good for them."

Coolidge's vast array of critters didn't help his reputation for being a misanthrope. Anthony reports that Coolidge's collie, Rob Roy, once menaced a senator at lunch. "Senator," Coolidge said, "I think he wants your sausage." The senator gave in. Even Franklin Roosevelt, the only president to be elected to four terms in the Oval Office, took political heat after he boasted that he had a naval destroyer fetch his Scottish terrier when she was accidentally left behind on the Aleutian Islands.

Republicans tried to turn the Fala Roosevelt rescue operation to their political advantage, claiming it cost taxpayers $15,000 in dog biscuits.

The Assassination of Lincoln’s Mutt

Pet controversies are as old as the White House itself. Abraham Lincoln's mutt, Fido, suffered a shocking fate, much like his master: He was knifed to death in the street by a drunk who became angry when the dog jumped on him with muddy paws. Rowan recounts the story of John Roll, Lincoln's neighbor from Springfield, Ill., who wrote the Lincoln family in Washington, reporting that the "poor yellow dog was assinated [sic] just like his illustrious master."

Maybe it's just true that some dogs and masters take on each other's lives. John F. Kennedy's terrier, Charlie, had a notorious Cold War romance with the Soviet dog Nikita Khrushchev gave the president — resulting in a litter of four pups.

Of course, master politicians can use their pets effectively. Richard Nixon effectively used his dog Checkers to deflect accusations that he had received improper campaign gifts during his vice-presidential campaign in 1952.

"Someone in Texas had sent us a little black-and-white cocker spaniel puppy. My daughter had named it Checkers … and I said that regardless of what anyone said about it, I was going to keep it," Nixon said.