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Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg crossed paths with an adorable dog in the midst of his Presidential campaigning in Vermont on Monday, and the former New York mayor treated it with the same professional courtesy he would extend to any human.

While the average American might go for the classic head scratch upon meeting a dog, Bloomberg, without missing a beat, went straight for the mouth, grabbing the upper jaw and giving it a few polite pumps.

One might assume, given this video, that Bloomberg’s wealth and status had kept him from ever seeing a dog before, and that he believed this one was simply an oddly shaped human. But there’s evidence that the candidate and the canines have maintained a detached co-existence in the past. Mainly due to the influence of his longtime girlfriend, Diana Taylor, Bloomberg appears to tolerate dogs but never accept them.

According to the New York Times in 2011, Bloomberg allowed a pair of yellow Labs to stay at his townhouse when Taylor gave them to him as a Christmas present, but only if she did everything to take care of them, and nobody ever claimed they were his.

“Ms. Taylor’s dogs have nothing to do with the mayor’s public life,” a spokesman for the now-candidate replied when the Times asked if Bloomberg ever walked the dogs, or if he liked them.

Still, this uneasy interspecies truce likely delivers Bloomberg the all-important dog vote over the man he considers to be his main political rival, Donald Trump, who seemingly compares everyone he doesn’t like to a dog.