My wife and I have a 13-year old Shih Tzu-Pekingese named Luna. [See photo below.] We've found that she's quite partial to the historic leaf and this past Christmas I received tins of tobacco from Holly (my wife) as well as my dad. Both my parents are avid anti-smokers, but my dad has come around to enjoying that I enjoy it, while my mom hasn't.
Anywho, when someone buys me a tin, I open it. When I buy it myself, I tend to squirrel it away. Luna, since we were on bar stools at my dad's place, made a decided effort to join in the action, pawing at my leg. She wanted a preview, it seemed, so I held the tin down to her.
Since this discovery, whenever I'm opening a tin and she's around, I let her give it a once over first. I pay attention to how long she lingers, how intently she huffs away, and her general demeanor when she's finished. What I've found is this...
1 - She has tastes that would slap a smile right on Brian Levine's face... Namely, she's not at all fond of Latakia. She liked Plum Pudding alright, but she hardly gave Quiet Nights a full second's inspection and when I tried to present her with Sextant she told me to get that peasant shit out of her face at once.
2 - English tobaccos aside, her inspections more or less predict with alarming accuracy the average reviews (smokingpipes.com 5-scale) of the blend in question. When she gave a few contented sniffs, the reviews tend to land between 3.5 and 4. When she sticks around longer, you know a blend polls rather well with its constituents.
In two cases, she loved what she smelled so much that I'd not hesitate to call them her favorites. First, there's Capstan Blue, which I find pleasing as it's a regular go-to favorite. Her other tippity top is Daylight, by Cornell and Diehl. In this case, I found her review overhyped as I wasn't so fond of the blend from the beginning and that tastes didn't change by the time it was gone.
Has anybody else here given their blends the canine test? If so, how'd it play out?
Anywho, when someone buys me a tin, I open it. When I buy it myself, I tend to squirrel it away. Luna, since we were on bar stools at my dad's place, made a decided effort to join in the action, pawing at my leg. She wanted a preview, it seemed, so I held the tin down to her.
Since this discovery, whenever I'm opening a tin and she's around, I let her give it a once over first. I pay attention to how long she lingers, how intently she huffs away, and her general demeanor when she's finished. What I've found is this...
1 - She has tastes that would slap a smile right on Brian Levine's face... Namely, she's not at all fond of Latakia. She liked Plum Pudding alright, but she hardly gave Quiet Nights a full second's inspection and when I tried to present her with Sextant she told me to get that peasant shit out of her face at once.
2 - English tobaccos aside, her inspections more or less predict with alarming accuracy the average reviews (smokingpipes.com 5-scale) of the blend in question. When she gave a few contented sniffs, the reviews tend to land between 3.5 and 4. When she sticks around longer, you know a blend polls rather well with its constituents.
In two cases, she loved what she smelled so much that I'd not hesitate to call them her favorites. First, there's Capstan Blue, which I find pleasing as it's a regular go-to favorite. Her other tippity top is Daylight, by Cornell and Diehl. In this case, I found her review overhyped as I wasn't so fond of the blend from the beginning and that tastes didn't change by the time it was gone.
Has anybody else here given their blends the canine test? If so, how'd it play out?
