First Pup Bo Faces First Ethics Test

Will Bo be strong in the face of temptation? All eyes are on the ethical standards set by the First Pup, before he even arrives at the White House.

While POTUS walks the tricky line of managing Washington lobbyists, Bo has his own challenges.

Of course a lifetime supply of Milk-Bone doggie biscuits is a nice try. But the heart-stopper is a plush, deluxe, ultimate doggie house, designed for Bo by Skip Sroka for Ritz-Carlton Hotels. Featured during the Inauguration, the deluxe dog house has been waiting for the nation's new First Dog to arrive. The question now is -- will Bo take the bait?

Ritz-Carlton Washington D.C.I love Ritz-Carlton but I doubt that this these luxury dog digs are Bo's style: a mini-White House, made of thick white muslin on a wooden frame, with a facsimile of the executive mansion's exterior hand-sketched in black ink. Inside: a pillowy floor covering in cobalt-blue silk embroidered with gold eagles. You know, just what every dog wants. (via Washington Post).

Perhaps Michelle's style bible Mrs O disagrees, but I don't see this deluxe Doggie floor covering in the White House Kitchen Garden? Is it organic? Made of recycled materials?

Any brand that wants to get down with the Obamas must play by their rules? How 'green' are the policies at Ritz-Carlton hotels worldwide?

Forget the not-transparent PR play to promote the Ritz-Carlton pet-friendly hotel policies. Allowing pets is good, and I don't hold it against them for trying to co-opt the First Pup. After all, this is the equivalent of a Washington D.C. political test that Bo's facing.

My mother trained Claude, her poodle, to travel in her bag without making one tiny sound, when they entered hotels, most of them forbidding pets.

For all practical purposes, Claude was out cold, until told he could wake up, but no yapping under any circumstances.

Claude mastered the art of 'dead dog', staying in the plushes hotels and roadway inns in America.

via LA Times BlogBut cobalt-blue silk is not the First Dog's style. Not only will Bo not be sitting around very much, because Porties must run, run, run; when he does take a snooze, I think it will be in a dog house more like this one.

I can see this dog house doing just fine in the White House Kitchen Garden. It's got Obama attitude written all over it.  A