The RBC apologizes abjectly for having missed this critical transition issue until now. Of course a first dog is absolutely essential, and a dog is essential for kids. The voters are correct, for a family with allergies, a poodle is the way to go (though I think a labradoodle is also OK; I’ve met a few at our off-leash dog park and they seem like really charming, lively, smart, dogs). Having had three, I would further specify a standard poodle (better to roughhouse with lively kids, I would not get a little dog) bitch (personality), and I hope they keep her in a sensible puppy cut, or all-over even mowing at about an inch. A poodle is a dog with dignity and a working history (water retrievers), as well as a sense of humor and lots of affection, and despite the alleged history of the ridiculous show cuts, deserves to look like a dog and not a stylist’s lunatic experiment with the potential of dogfro fur and a clipper.
I don’t know if either parent has any experience with dogs. They need to realize that a dog is not a cat and not a fashion accessory for photo shoots, and the pooch will need real attention especially as a pup, from a family with a lot on their plate. I guess it’s inevitable that there will be a dog nanny, but I hope she(the dog!) gets real family affection and bonding; it will do the kids (and the parents) a world of good.
When I was out of town several years ago, the girls got what we guess is a German shepherd/golden retriever cross from the shelter, and we have since adopted a truly splendid mostly lab/slightly pitbull cross (my first dog) with excellent results (Felix has definitely shaken my judgment that bitches are better pets), and I like the idea of mixed-breeds from the pound instead of purebreds, for reasons of hybrid vigor, health, and sparing abandoned dogs from an early death. But the Obamas can’t go wrong with that poodle
Author: Michael O'Hare
Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Michael O'Hare was raised in New York City and trained at Harvard as an architect and structural engineer. Diverted from an honest career designing buildings by the offer of a job in which he could think about anything he wanted to and spend his time with very smart and curious young people, he fell among economists and such like, and continues to benefit from their generosity with on-the-job social science training.
He has followed the process and principles of design into "nonphysical environments" such as production processes in organizations, regulation, and information management and published a variety of research in environmental policy, government policy towards the arts, and management, with special interests in energy, facility siting, information and perceptions in public choice and work environments, and policy design. His current research is focused on transportation biofuels and their effects on global land use, food security, and international trade; regulatory policy in the face of scientific uncertainty; and, after a three-decade hiatus, on NIMBY conflicts afflicting high speed rail right-of-way and nuclear waste disposal sites. He is also a regular writer on pedagogy, especially teaching in professional education, and co-edited the "Curriculum and Case Notes" section of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Between faculty appointments at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, he was director of policy analysis at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He has had visiting appointments at Università Bocconi in Milan and the National University of Singapore and teaches regularly in the Goldman School's executive (mid-career) programs.
At GSPP, O'Hare has taught a studio course in Program and Policy Design, Arts and Cultural Policy, Public Management, the pedagogy course for graduate student instructors, Quantitative Methods, Environmental Policy, and the introduction to public policy for its undergraduate minor, which he supervises. Generally, he considers himself the school's resident expert in any subject in which there is no such thing as real expertise (a recent project concerned the governance and design of California county fairs), but is secure in the distinction of being the only faculty member with a metal lathe in his basement and a 4×5 Ebony view camera. At the moment, he would rather be making something with his hands than writing this blurb.
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