Police Dog 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

“He is tough as galvanized nails, this dog. I suddenly realize that’s the problem: he’s tougher than I am. All those years on patrol, on SWAT, sweating in that tactical gear, all of it nowhere near the level of discomfort this animal can and will endure to do what he wants to do. Brag isn’t the one who needs to toughen up, it’s me.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“Once you’re on the Dog Unit, you’ll never want to give it up.’

He was right: it’s the best job in the world.

If you think about the most exciting thing you’ve ever done and times it by ten, then think about doing it every day with your best friend and getting paid for it, that’s what being a police dog handler is like. It’s the best game of hide and seek ever. Every dog owner knows how much fun it is to play with your dog. I knew if I worked hard and passed out with flying colours, I’d be able to play with my dog every single day and get paid for it. Yes, there’s a cost and a risk to chasing baddies but, ultimately, to your dog it’s a game.”
― Gareth Greaves, My Hero Theo: The brave police dog who went beyond the call of duty to save lives

“I hid behind a wall and looked inside: there were three adult men getting changed and throwing money around like they were in some Hollywood movie. Shocked and delighted, I couldn’t contain my excitement: ‘Bloody hell, Theo, you’ve found them, you’ve bloody found them!’ I whispered and gave him a stroke, my heart pounding.

Theo had found the team of armed robbers.

What I was feeling inevitably went down the lead. Theo was whimpering, he was expecting the challenges to be issued, but I couldn’t with so many of them. There was a chance he’d fare okay against three but it was unlikely even with the element of surprise on our side.”
― Gareth Greaves, My Hero Theo: The brave police dog who went beyond the call of duty to save lives

“For me it was a huge deal to get that care from so far up the chain and it dawned on me that I couldn’t ever thank Theo enough. Yes, I could treat him and give him lots of love, but he’d never understand the gravitas of what he’d done. He didn’t know the cause and effect. He didn’t know there were kids safe in their beds thanks to him, that kids had their Christmas presents back because of him, that bad people were off the streets and in prison.

All because of him”
― Gareth Greaves, My Hero Theo: The brave police dog who went beyond the call of duty to save lives

“Jeff’s first lesson for me was in how to select a good police dog. He had myriad tests he would put dogs through to determine whether they had the right focus and effort to be a good police dog. He explained that the three most important characteristics were that the dog be happy, social, and confident. I found it odd that Jeff started with a happy dog.”
― Mark Tappan, A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer

“Have your helper tease your dog with a toy and run away to a place the dog can’t see. Start the dog on an item the helper dropped, like a sweaty hat, then have the dog find him. As you progress, you want the dog to start using his nose, not his eyes, to identify the person who has his toy. So you remove the part where the dog sees the helper run away and just start him on the sweaty hat that was dropped. You make the tracks longer and longer with different types of ground and obstacles, and eventually you have an amazing tracking dog. The key to this one is, again, to flip out with excitement when the dog finds the helper and make it the most amazing time in the world.”
― Mark Tappan, A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer

“I asked the decoy what happened. He told me he heard Mattis go down a row in the distance and then jump up onto a shelf. He said he then jumped from shelf to shelf (in the dark) straight toward him at about head level. The decoy said, “I know I was supposed to be still, but he was coming at me head level, so I threw my arm up to intercept him.”

The other handlers, the decoy, and I were all astounded. This was not what I had planned. This was not the lesson | wanted to teach Mattis. I laughed because he’d solved it in a manner I hadn’t considered, and in a more efficient way. This type of Mattis solution became commonplace at every training session. Throw a complex problem at him and just watch him with wonder as he comes up with a solution. We never knew what it was going to be, but we knew it was going to be grounded in determination, athleticism, and efficiency.”
― Mark Tappan, A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer

“Give your police training to your police dog”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“Dakota once again drew in a breath, her cheeks reddened. “And you’d be the smokin’ hot guy?” Her teeth scraped over her bottom lip.
He cocked his head. “But of course.”
― Anne Perreault, The Promise

“The New York police-dogs are not as finely trained as those of Ghent and other European cities. Not as much is asked of them. But they are expected to stick to their official masters, to recognize men in uniforms as friends and all others as possible enemies, to answer at once to the police-whistle or the rap of a night-stick, to hurl themselves upon a man attacking a policeman, to lie still and watch when commanded, to pursue and throw a fleeing criminal, to search around buildings at night, and to give notice by barking of the presence of persons lurking in the shadows. Pete showed not the slightest inclination to do any of these things.”
― Walter Alden Dyer, Many Dogs There Be

“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

“In a police K-9 team, the human is always the weak link. We are forgetful and our enthusiasm waxes and wanes. Dogs love to work and they forget nothing.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“The longer I work with Brag, the less I see him the way I used to see a dog. He doesn’t feel like a dog at all, more like some creature that possesses entirely unique behaviors and motivations; a werewolf. I suppose. I trust him, some of the time. When I release him to do his job and I’ve done my job to try to limit the possible outcomes (biting another police officer, biting an innocent civilian, biting anyone he’s not supposed to bite, whether they are innocent or not). I’m confident he won’t fail.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“In the ten-year period of 2004 to 2014, at least 101 police K-9’s died in the line of duty. Two were killed by other animals, two were killed by assault, two were drowned, one died of exposure to toxins, seven died in falls, six in auto accidents, five died due to duty-related illnesses or injury, fourteen were struck and killed by vehicles, sixteen died from heat exhaustion, three were stabbed to death, six were killed by intentional vehicular assaults, three died in training accidents, and thirty-four were killed by gunfire.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“As I start up the steep hillside, I hear a man screaming. It’s Reck, shrieking in the darkness somewhere. Brag has him.

“GOOD BOY!” I shout, scrambling up the dusty trail on all fours. But there’s no need to go any farther because Brag is bringing Reck to me.

They appear in a surreal cloud of flash-light-beam illuminating dust. Brag is dragging the man by his lower leg, thrashing his head like a shark, digging his paws into the dusty earth.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“There’s something else I have to face, that I’ve been denying for a long time: Brag has a sense of humor. He is the fearsome Werewolf, the hater of people on skateboards, people wearing hoodies, people who make eye contact, people who approach his K-9 car, people who walk funny, people who holler at him, and anyone else who is more than twelve years old and doesn’t wear a police uniform. But despite all his deadly seriousness he bit that pillow because he thought it would be funny. And it was.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“Fifty-five, K9-1 station EOW.”

End of Watch, I put the mic down.

“K9-1 station,” the dispatcher replies. “Thank you, Brag.”
― David Alton Hedges, Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog

“Days into the 18-week program, Judge was excelling. He had a strong work ethic, could perform tasks necessary for crowd control and building searches, and navigated wet floors and stairwells with ease. But when it came to apprehending people acting the parts of criminals in arrest scenarios, “He wouldn't let the person go, Franks remembers with a smile. “And when I would try to take him off the person, he would then turn and bite me.” It happened five or six times, according to Franks, who made several trips to the emergency room and even received 10 stitches across his nose. But one of the ace trainers at the school told him, “If you can stick with it, I promise you will get a great; dog.” He and Judge worked things out. And he got a great dog.”
― Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, Loyal: 38 Inspiring Tales of Bravery, Heroism, and the Devotion of Dogs