I first received a sample of Barking Dog as part of a pipe and tobacco order. I liked it immediately, with its strong pleasant odor when opening the pouch. My sample was a little dry and therefore smoked milder than I've found it to be since. It was good enough to make me buy more.

Other reviews have a strangely differing opinion on the amount of latakia - I would say there is almost half and half mixture and in keeping with the 60/40 that others mention. It packs nicely and I have not had problems with keeping it lit, even in different pipes.

The Dog has a very rich and full taste on first light, but soon settles into a very smooth and satisfying smoke. This is the first tobacco I've tried that is noticeably cool on the draw, and a pleasure to the palate. I find definite sweet overtones for the first 3/4 of the bowl, so much so that I often smack my lips between puffs to savor the flavor. I like the fact that it has good taste without seeming like its been truly "flavored" or made to be something its not (like a berry or vanilla might be).

I enjoy the smoke smell on the nose while smoking. I don't smoke indoors so the true room smell is a guess, but I do enjoy the linger when in the garage or other enclosed spaces.

The flavor is well-balanced between the smooth richness of burley and the pointed spice of unaffected bright virginia along with a hefty proportion of latakia providing a pleasingly bitter contrast. The dry austerity is mitigated by the simplifying and ingratiating effect of the sweetish topping.

With typical House of Windsor aplomb, Barking Dog is an easy-smoking american blend that manages to add an admirable latakia complexity without sacrificing companionability.

Chamber Gauge: Medium

It's true that I'm not used to a pure cube cut and that may be part of the problem. I'm used to flakes, broken flakes and ribbon or coarse cuts. I spoke with others that were more knowledgable about how to load a cube cut into a pipe, I followed their suggestions, and I just couldn't make this stuff work. Some other reviewers have had similar problems and some haven't. Hopefully anyone reading this has better luck than I.

Recommended for taste, not recommended for the effort required.

It packs well, takes a little effort to light it. Has a decent smooth taste. The topping is minimal. Over all a very pleasing smoke. Personally it did leave a little linger after taste, not horrible. Though I still did find myself washing the taste out with some homebrew. Not that I really need a reason for that anyways ;-)

If your an aromatic fan, that wanted to try something between English and Aromatic, this may be the blend for you.

I may buy this again. It was alright, though I may stay with some heavier English blends.

It is a bit dry out of the tin, and when gravity fed into the bowl packs nicely. Lighting for me was no issue with just one match. It does bite a little if smoked hard. Otherwise, no issues here.

The strength is mild with regards to nicotine, but the flavor is very well balanced with just the right amount of latakia to round things out. I am not a huge fan of cube burleys, but this blend has changed my mind.

I am only sorry to have come across it too late in its lifecycle. I do plan to buy several tins to have in the future, in the event that I wish to take a walk down memory lane with this nostalgic blend from a better managed time.

The room note is pleasing, and is best described by a fellow reviewer as a campfire scent. The taste is straight forward "codger burley" with a latakia influence.

I will recommend this blend if you can find it. Its definately worth a try! Take this dog for a walk.

Get Prince Albert instead.

Peace Bull

BTW this is my first review of pipe tobacco anywhere.

Compared to other blends (Old Lodge, Squadron Leader) it really isn't much of a bargin although I suppose its nice to see a "retro" blend still in the marketplace.

Upon lighting the pipe, the flavor of the top dressing, now made overpowering by heat, assaulted my mouth and olfactoy lobe. I found it most unpleasant, and only smoked 1/4 of the bowl before dumping it. Even at that, I had to smoke a few bowls of MacBaren's Burley London Blend to get the dog funk out of the pipe.

Since this problem wasn't reported by the other reviewers here, I assume that the overwhelming nature of the top dressing must be attributed to HOW's now-reputed lack of quality control.

I agree with Lustra that the search for a fine Burley/Latakia blend ends with C&D's Morley's Best.

I have since finished the can and plan on obtaining more of this hearty smoke. I really enjoy the "saltyness" of the smoke. It is one of my favorite tobaccos to smoke when I am on the road. The coarseness of the cut does not bother me.

It is a cheap smoke and if you like Latakia you should be able to taste it in this blend. A friend recently gave me a bunch of Lat blends since he does not prefer them and he knows I do. I have tried several of them but like the Dog the best so far.

This will be one of my regulars for now until I find something else. One curious thing about it is the room note. I have friends that love the smell of it when I am smoking it around them and friends that absolutly hate it saying that it smells horrible. So, I won't smoke it around them...

Fie. And fie again. The first thing I noticed when opening the tin was how wet this stuff came. I don't like wet tobacco. Moist perhaps, but I distinctly remember the leaves sticking to my fingers. What's more, it didn't seem to dry out over time. Such things seem unnatural to me.

I did eventually smoke some. I asked myself one thing from the outset, and continued to ask it during every subsiquent smoke. This question: Where is the burley?

I very much enjoy the taste of burley. I will often choose a tobacco described as having something like 'a pernounced burley character' and am rarely sorry I did so. If one is going to have a tobacco whith a burley base, that tobacco should have some taste of burley. Barking Dog does not taste like burley. It tastes like Latakia, not burley. Where is the burley? Where? What do they think they are doing? Did they think I wouldn't notice? Well let me tell you---

Sorry.

Honestly though, Latakia was the only thing I could taste in this mixture. I finished the entire can, for some reason, and such was always the case. There is nothing wrong with Latakia, but when I am smoking what is called a blend I would like to taste other tabacco as well, like burley, you clods at House of Windsor.

Still though, people continue to rave over this blend. I don't know why. Perhaps it's me. Not likely, but perhaps. I still maintain that I would like this style of tobacco if only it were done right and I could taste the burley, which I couldn't, you see. I understand that Cornell&Diehl has a clone of Barking Dog. I have always known Mr. Tarler to be a man that makes a blend that has a taste like unto the tobaccos he claims to put into said blend, unlike some companies whose name begins with 'H' and ends with 'indsor'. Yes, perhaps I need to look to Junkyard Dawg. 'Dawg', mind you. More later.

Regards, A. Morley Jaques