Barack Obama has promised that he will help his daughters to “keep it real” after they move to the White House, making them clean their own rooms, make their beds and even “scoop the poop” left on the grass by their new puppy.

The strict regime outlined by Mr Obama and his wife Michelle is a huge departure from that followed by the previous first daughters, Barbara and Jenna Bush - once described by White House staffers as “all noblesse and no oblige”.

Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, have been making their own beds since they were 4, the President-elect told the ABC television presenter Barbara Walters. The White House’s domestic staff have been told not to carry out chores that the Obamas want their girls to do. “That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit,” Michelle Obama said. “I said, ‘You know, we’re going to have to set up some boundaries’.”

Mr Obama said that the girls would bear responsibility for looking after the new puppy that he promised them as a reward for their patience during his election campaign. It would be the girls’ duty to “scoop the poop” left in the grounds. “We don’t want litter on the White House lawns,” Mr Obama said. “They are going to have to do their job.”

Media obsession with the Obamas’ choice of breed has not eased, with the family still stuck between the competing desires of a pedigree dog or one taken from a shelter. Mr Obama ruled out a suggestion by Ms Walters that that they should follow her example and choose a Havanese. The President-elect grimaced and said that it sounded like a “little yappy dog”. He said they would choose “a big, rambunctious dog of some sort”.

The girls have already been assigned their bedrooms, the same ones that the Bush twins first occupied eight years ago. Mr Obama added that his elder daughter had her eye on a special place to do her homework.

Back from a familiarisation visit with her mother and sister, Malia told her father that she planned to work at the desk in the fabled Lincoln bedroom because “I’m thinking that will inspire big thoughts”.

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