I was grocery shopping with my wife tonight, and of course, as is my tendency, I was carry some decent firepower. I had my 5" .44 mag at 3:00, a 360 PD in my left front pocket and a P3AT in the right one. While making our way through the store I noticed a blind man with a seeing-eye dog shopping with his wife. As much as I like dogs, I made a mental note not to bother our four-legged hero, since he has a job to do. Later on while passing this couple in an aisle (they were going one direction and us the other), the dog, which I had observed to be very well behaved and business-like, turned his head to sniff my left front pocket. He didn't sniff my crotch, he sniffed the pocket area. I stuck my hand over by his head and said, "How ya doin' fella?". The blind man's wife chided the dog, which got right back to his business and so I told her that I wasn't bothered. She said "Thanks, but he needs to stay focused". It was a few steps further that I realized that perhaps he was focused. When I looked down at him I noticed he was wearing a "Paws for a Cause" vest. I'm wondering if perhaps he could have been a failed police dog, or something? What do you guys think? I haven't fired or cleaned that gun in a couple of months so it couldn't have been that odorous. Perhaps he was interested in the smell of my pants that I'd worn to work that day? Through the whole episode he remained very friendly and would have had to smell my 360 very quickly as we were just passing each other. I'm curious what our LEO friends think. BTW, by their relaxed demeanor, the couple never had a clue I was carrying.

It was all the weed you had stuffed in your pocket. Sounds like a former K-9, all right.

quote:

Originally posted by flop-shank:
I was grocery shopping with my wife tonight, and of course, as is my tendency, I was carry some decent firepower. I had my 5" .44 mag at 3:00, a 360 PD in my left front pocket and a P3AT in the right one.

Good Lord. I need to get out more often, I had no idea that grocery shopping was so dangerous these days.

WJR

Wow! You need to move to a safer neighborhood. If I was *expecting* trouble, I wouldn't carry three shootin' irons...

Sir, with all that hardware you had on, he probably just wondered why you clank when you walk.

Semper Fi,

Ron H.

He may have smelled oil, powder residue, or just about anything. Guide dogs are like every other dog in that respect. Their noses can detect stuff that we think we washed out of clothing. Any interesting or new smell will attract their attention, even when they are working. A good guide dog will not be distracted by the smell if it is passing by, but standing still often deserves a quick head swing and a sniff.

I like guide dogs. When they come to my office and have their harnesses taken off, they act like kids in a toy store and will play until they drop. Admirable dogs, really. The best ones have no trouble separating work from dog stuff.

Shorty

The minimum security lifers in the women's prison in NJ raise seeing eye dog puppies. Maybe that dog was raised in a prison and so remembered the vaguely familiar gunpowder smell.

Did the dog seem upset? Did he think you are paranoid with all of those arms? Who cares, it was a dog. I would rather have a strange dog sniff my pocket than have one jam his nose in my crotch or butt like they usually do..

Sounds to me like he did what dogs do. Sniff stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by WJR:

Good Lord. I need to get out more often, I had no idea that grocery shopping was so dangerous these days.

WJR

Then again...if it's that dangerous...maybe we should stay in!

Seriously, I have two "on or about my person" quite often. Nothing paranoid about that.

Perhaps you had handled somthing intriging at lunch and then put your hand in your pocket, leaving the aroma of salami or such.

Some years back, I had a shepard that had been a drug sniffing K-9 for a local PD before being retired. Since they had been unsuccessful in retraining him he could only be given to an experienced and insured handler. I think he had ripped open one too many of those packages as he was a little strange but a great dog. He used to have the tire off a caddy as his chew toy. He seemed to get very excited whenever he was around cash. I suspect a lot of the money in circulation has drug residue on it.

quote:

Originally posted by TNDixieGirl:
Sounds to me like he did what dogs do. Sniff stuff.

Sounds about right to me. Quite a few decades ago, I was spending time with a lady who owned a female dog that used to hump my leg, even (especially?) when she was in heat. I always used to keep a close eye out after that for large dogs, but I never ran into any real trouble. Did get a few puzzled looks from male dogs, however.

I was thinking about this today at work and I think Dixie is right. I would expect that a dog trained to find guns would act as if he had just scored the winning touchdown when he finally found one, rather than display mild curiousity. Just like members of the armed forces or police officers are still human when all is said and done, a guide dog is still a dog.

WJR and em-man, That's three guns for a total of a whopping eighteen rounds of firepower. A full size Glock 9mm will hold that many in one gun. I like one available to each hand and one to be a pocket draw and one (not always possible, in which case I just have a gun in each front pocket) to be a belt gun. Each type of draw is advantageous for different situations. I use the New York reload, which consists of drawing another gun rather than trying to reload an empty one. Gun three is because I like my guns to always be in the same place (never remove only carry more), and it gives me the option of tossing one to my wife since she isn't licensed to carry. I hope this all makes sense. Some people get it, some don't. To each their own. Keep in mind if I were really worried about a trip to the store I wouldn't go, much less take my bride into harms way. I don't subscribe to the idea that good gunfights happen in good neigborhoods and bad ones happen in bad neigborhoods, so if I'm carrying, I'm packing to win.

Frizzman, I couldn't agree more!

quote:

Perhaps you had handled somthing intriging at lunch and then put your hand in your pocket, leaving the aroma of salami or such.

This wouldn't be my first guess because I would have guessed he might have been trained or partly so to sniff "Nitrates" and you certainly would have 'Set-Off' a "Bomb Dog".

By chance was your fly open?