This race for the White House begins at the dog pound

Wanted: Presidential First Puppy. Should be less than a year old. Only hypoallergenic dogs need apply. Poodles and doodles especially welcome. Yorkies, bichon frises, Cairn terriers, Westies, cockapoos and wheaten terriers also encouraged. Must be doing time in a city or county shelter, foster home or private rescue facility. Will be vetted by incoming first daughters, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10. Position is highly competitive.

"There is a perfect dog sitting here waiting for him," Gillian Lange, founder of a private rescue operation on the Westside, said Friday in a pitch echoed by others eager to submit resumes of shelter dogs to the White House transition team.

"It's a white dog, about 18 pounds, 6 months old, called April," said Lange, who heads the Lange Foundation. The dog is a poodle, mixed possibly with a West Highland terrier. "She loves children, especially little girls, and definitely wants to live in a house the same color as she is."

Ever since President-elect Barack Obama announced in his victory speech that his daughters would be taking a new puppy with them to the White House, interest in the subject of the First Pooch has exploded. Animal welfare websites bristle with advice on pet ownership and praise for Obama's pledge to search for a shelter dog.

Petfinder.com, citing Malia's allergies, blogged this week that its database included about 5,000 dogs of hypoallergenic breeds.

"We've called and e-mailed his transition team; I think we're approaching harassment," database co-founder Betsy Saul said, laughing. "I want to communicate the message loud and clear that I will personally help his family find the right dog."

Ed Boks, general manager of L.A.'s Animal Services Department, said he called the office of Antonio Villaraigosa in hopes that the mayor -- who's on Obama's economic task force, after all -- might "put in a good word for L.A.'s homeless dogs. Our dogs would make the very best ambassadors to the White House."

But so would the bald and stark-looking Peruvian hairless dog -- at least according to the Friends of the Peruvian Hairless Dog Assn. "They do not cause any type of allergy and are very friendly and sweet," the group's director, Claudia Galvez, told a wire service reporter this week. Galvez sent a letter through diplomatic circles offering a male puppy.