Dale Haney is the keeper of the White House grounds. In nearly 40 years of keeping the grass green and the flowers blooming, he’s also managed to cultivate something just as important: relationships with the presidents’ pooches.

Haney is often spotted walking Bo, the Obama family’s Portuguese water dog.

In fact, he’s tended to every White House pup since King Timahoe, Richard Nixon ’s Irish setter.

PHOTOS: Bo and other presidential pets

Haney, 57, has been a White House fixture since 1972. After getting a degree in horticulture from Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C., he continued his training in Washington and basically was discovered for his green thumb, as he tells the story.

“They heard about me and they called me to come over here for an interview and I came and here I still am,” he said during a tour of the gardens one recent rainy morning when first lady Michelle Obama — Bo’s primary walker — was out of town.

That meant Haney would be Bo’s handler until she returned from a day trip to Florida .

“I have him a little bit more” when she’s traveling, said Haney, who said he’s amazed by the public’s fascination with White House pets.

“Sometimes I think they’re more interested in the pets than the president,” he said. “It’s real amazing.” Take Bo.