Richard Remme (l) says his dog, Balew, had an itchy trigger paw

FORT DODGE, Iowa — Put the gun down, Rover!

An Iowa man said he was shot in the leg when his pet pooch accidentally pulled the trigger on a handgun stuffed into his waistband while they were horsing around.

“My dog shot me,” 51-year-old Richard Remme sheepishly admitted to the Fort Dodge Messenger.

Cops confirmed the account, saying when they arrived at Remme’s house last Wednesday, he was bleeding from his leg, and was home alone with the pup, Balew, was sitting sadly in the corner, as if he knew he’d done something wrong.

Remme recounted the event as follows:

“I was lying on the couch, and we were horsing around, me and the dog. And I was tossing him off my lap, and he was jumping back on my lap,” he told the paper.

“And I carry in a belly band, under my bib overalls. And apparently he bumped the safety one time, and when he bounded back over one of his toes went right down into the trigger guard,” he continued.

“It has a trigger safety as well as a thumb safety, and he managed to hit both of them, and it discharged and went into my leg, did no major damage to anything,” Remme said.

Fort Dodge Police Chief Rodger Porter said Remme has the proper gun licenses and that no one would be charged, but acknowledged the whole situation was pretty unusual.

“I’ve never heard of that,” he said. “I’ve heard of guns dropping and going off on the floor, and horsing around and guns going off. I can’t say I’ve heard a dog story before.”

Fortunately for Remme, the gunshot wound to his leg wasn’t too severe, and he was released from the hospital quickly. When he returned home, he said Balew was beside himself.

“The dog’s a big wuss,” Remme said. “The poor dog laid down beside me and cried, because he thought he was in trouble for doing something wrong. He’s a pit lab mix. He’s afraid of the dark, he’s afraid of water.”