Originally Posted by LEX-LGA Commuter
So the dog jumps up and sits on the bag till the handler pulls him off. Turns out, it's the USDA (I think) not Customs or the DEA. And he asks us if there is any food in the bag. We tell him yes, there are boxes of Belgian chocolates in that very bag. "Oh, that's OK. But are there any fruits or vegetables in the bag?" Nope. Well, the dog has come back for an encore, is still doing his routine for everyone around to see, and the handler asks "Did you use the bag for any picnics or shopping trips?" Well no, but there is a canvas day bag inside the luggage that we used almost daily for our shore excursions and yes, we almost always took fruit and sodas from the ship with us.
Here in the US, those pups are out there doing the sniffing sporadically. My estimation is that I see them about once every five or six times coming back into the US.
In Australia, they're MUCH more religious about it. I was told that there would be dog sniffers AND mandatory x-rays going into SYD. And that's exactly what was there at the arrivals area. The woman standing next to me had two apples in her bag, Fido sniffed them out.