U.S. President George W. Bush's pet dogs, Barney (bottom) and Spot (top) step off Marine One on the south lawn of the White House. (Reuters/Larry Downing)

There are many serious issues facing Barack Obama as he braces to assume the U.S. presidency: choosing a cabinet, an economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there is another issue provoking significant paws for thought as the president-elect gets ready to move his family to Washington. Just what sort of cute little puppy will romp through the Obama family rooms at the White House?

That a dog is on the way is not in doubt. In his speech in Chicago on election night, Obama promised daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, that they would have a new four-legged friend to play with in their new home.

"I love you both so much," he said "and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House."

But that innocent promise has suddenly sparked a media and internet storm of opinions on everything from the type of dog the next president should acquire to its name. Then there is the debate over whether the new first family should look for a puppy or adopt an older dog from a shelter.

The blogosphere and mainstream media all over the world in fact have been running wild with speculation, faster than President George W. Bush's pooch Barney springs down the steps from the Marine One helicopter.

A topic of insignificance.

Finding the appropriate presidential pet is not just idle musing. The tradition runs long and deep in the United States, right back to George Washington and his 10 hounds.

In many cases, the pet that scampered about the White House was more than a cute, and perhaps cuddly, companion, especially when you consider John Quincy Adams reportedly kept an alligator in a bathtub.

A first-family pet can also be a useful tool in helping shape the image of a president and his family, a furry device to help rescue a foundering political persona or escape a probing question.

"For some people in the White House, dogs are nothing more than a symbol," Vancouver author Stanley Coren, who wrote The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events, told ABCNews.com.

In particular, he noted presidents Benjamin Harrison and Herbert Hoover used dogs as campaign tools to appeal to the common man.

But a goldendoodle?

For the Obamas, the canine speculation started long before an election night declaration to two little girls.

In a political blog earlier this week, the New York times reported that Obama was talking about just what sort of pooch might be appropriate while campaigning in Iowa a year ago. Malia, who has allergies, had been doing some research and determined that a goldendoodle, a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle, would be the best choice, he said.

That suggestion did not go down well with those who thought a purebred would be a bad idea. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dashed a letter off to the Obamas suggesting a purebred would be "elitist," the Times said.

It noted that the Best Friends Animal Society also gathered more than 50,000 signatures to try to persuade the family to adopt a dog from a shelter.

The Obamas may be leaning that way. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the end of September, Michelle Obama suggested: "We're going to adopt, I think."

A long list

Whatever the Obamas do, their dog will join a long line of presidential pets, following in the celebrity pawprints of chocolate lab Buddy and Socks the cat, who shared the White House with Bill Clinton; George H.W. Bush's dog Millie, which became something of a publishing sensation (she is credited with authoring Millie's Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush ); and Harry S. Truman's dog Feller, among many others.

And the Obamas could take a lesson from Truman on how closely the public watches — and cares — about the pooch in the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue. While Truman said: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," that apparently wasn't a sentiment he held particularly dear.

He gave away Feller, a cocker spaniel he had received as an unsolicited gift. Dog lovers were outraged.

Swung by the ears

Truman wasn't the only president to feel the public wrath over presidential treatment of a pet. Animal lovers had nothing kind to say when Lyndon Johnson picked up beagles Him and Her by their ears.

One dog, however, did evoke a more positive public image and is credited with saving a career.

On his road to the White House, while a candidate for vice-president, Richard Nixon invoked his cocker spaniel, Checkers, in his defence against rumours of a slush fund. He admitted he had taken one gift: the dog.

"The kids love the dog, and we're going to keep it," he said in what became known as his Checkers speech.

Beagles and cocker spaniels seem like relatively tame companions compared to some of the more exotic animals that have shared the White House and its environs with the commander-in-chief.

According to the website of the Presidential Pets Museum, those animals have included pigs, cows, sheep and horses, along with a wallaby, a bear, a pygmy hippo and the alligator given to Adams by the Marquis of Lafayette.

The list goes on: two grizzly bears were kept caged outside the White House by Thomas Jefferson; Calvin Coolidge kept, among many other creatures, raccoons and a bobcat. So Obama's two little girls may have more choice of a family pet than they first thought.

Presidential pets have also had their brushes with diplomacy. Nikita Khrushchev gave a puppy to John F. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline, a gesture that it has been suggested could have contributed a wee bit toward easing Cold War relations with Russia.

Another presidential dog, however, did get a little too close to one diplomat: Theodore Roosevelt's pitbull Pete took a disliking to the French ambassador, ripping the rear out of his pants. For that, Pete was banished to the president's home on Long Island.

Pete isn't the only presidential canine that has turned a bit nasty. Just this week, George W. Bush's Barney nipped the right index finger of a Reuters reporter.

Two foster kittens make themselves at home with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at 24 Sussex Drive. (Government of Canada)

Cats at 24 Sussex Drive

On this side of the Canada-U.S. border, the focus — and fixation — our American neighbours have on their presidential pets could seem a little foreign. Certainly there is no museum that showcases any four-legged residents of 24 Sussex Drive.

That's not to say, however, that some prime ministers haven't found friendship or solace in a friendly pet or two.

On Prime Minister Stephen Harper's website, there is a picture of him with a couple of cute striped kittens crawling over his desk. His wife, Laureen, is a well-known cat lover and the website encourages fostering of cats.

Harper, a man whose public reputation is generally not one of warmth, was apparently visibly distraught when a family cat was struck and killed outside Stornaway when he was opposition leader.

And then there was Mackenzie King, the eccentric, long-serving prime minister well-known for his devotion to Irish terriers. He had several, all named Pat.

With files from the Associated Press