Now that the highly-emotional campaign and election are over, I think we could all stand a few laughs. You’ve probably already seen this video, but in case you haven’t, check out First Dog Barney Bush, as he greets Reuters reporter Jonathan Decker with a not-so-friendly chomp on the finger.

Video after the jump.

From the video, you can see Decker does everything one shouldn’t when approaching a strange dog. On its website, The Humane Society of the United States lists “do’s” and “don’ts” for avoiding dog bites. Decker, a stranger, attempted to pet Barney, who looked like he was trying to get away from the reporter. Decker moved a bit too quickly toward the dog and never even allowed Barney to sniff the back of his hand. The result: A bandaged finger, a tetanus shot, and a couple days on antibiotics. Good thing Barney’s up-to-date on his rabies vaccines, or Decker might have had to endure a bit more painful treatment.

I believe animals understand a lot more about what’s going on than we give them credit for. Barney’s probably fed up with nearly eight years of the media’s pestering and taunting his master and can’t wait to get back to being just a private citizen dog. He’s probably thinking: “Let another pooch take the ‘First Dog’ oath of office.”