Gordon Thorburn > Quotes

“The combination of qualities required in a police dog – the nose, the biddability, the controllable aggression, the bravery, the talent for distinguishing the toe-rag from the good citizen, the fear-inspiring bark and looking the part – these do not necessarily come with any pedigree, nor do the genes predictably pass on.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

“and made second”
― Gordon Thorburn, More Luck of a Lancaster: 109 Operations, 315 Crew, 101 Killed in Action

“He remembered he’d nothing in the fridge for his sandwiches so, outside the village grocery shop, which called itself a delicatessen, he sat the two dogs down and gave the leads to Holly, then all of eight years old. The street was empty, he’d only be a minute. He went into the shop to find another customer, a cheery lady in her early thirties, dressed in a tracksuit, refusing the Caerphilly and the Lancashire because she especially wanted Wensleydale. As she turned and went out, a terrible thought crossed Joe’s mind.

With a ‘Back in two ticks’ to the shopkeeper, he was through the door — but too late. The woman, seeing the two little girls and the two huge and apparently beautifully behaved dogs sitting beside them, had gone across to chat and give the dogs a pat. Cass, his duty clear and seeing himself in charge of the situation, had pre-empted any potential harm to those in his care by nipping behind the woman and biting her quite hard in the bottom.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

“Watch him!’ screeched Joe, more urgently than Cass had ever heard before and, glory be, that dog turned on a sixpence, roared back to the bewildered and besodden thieves, slid to a halt in a shower of sand and gravel and bouncing on his paws, showed his charges once more what he would do to them if they tried anything.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

“Then another very tall policeman arrived with a huge hairy hound that took one look at the assembled and noisy throng, decided that he had better go for the nearest one and bit him in the hand. Pity of it was, the nearest one was the sergeant.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

“Operational dogs very often experienced failure. A track would lead nowhere, a search would find nothing, a quarry pursued would escape, and no matter how much the handler tried to compensate with fun exercises out of hours, any failure left a small mark and repeated failures accumulated. Success at new challenges, new games, was an unbeatable tonic for a dog and handler.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

“Like the soldiers of Henry V, he stood like a greyhound in the slips, straining upon the start. The game — Cass’s game, the game he was trained to play — was afoot.”
― Gordon Thorburn, Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog