Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Mark Tappan

Quote by Mark Tappan

“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.”

Quote by Mark Tappan

Book:A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer
Create image

Work

A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Mark Tappan

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Mark Tappan. more

You May Also Like

“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.”

DogsPolice Dog
Book:A Dog Named Mattis: 12 Lessons for Living Courageously, Serving Selflessly, and Building Bridges from a Heroic K9 Officer
Create image

“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.”

DogsPolice Dog
Book:Many Dogs There Be
Create image

“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.”

DogsPolice Dog
Book:Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog
Create image

“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.”

Police Dog
Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
Create image

“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.”

Police Dog
Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
Create image

“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.”

Police Dog
Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
Create image

“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.”

Police Dog
Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
Create image