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Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog

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Gordon Thorburn

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“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.”

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Book:Cassius - The True Story of a Courageous Police Dog
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“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.”

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Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
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“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.”

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Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
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“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.”

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Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
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“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.”

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Book:Werewolf: The True Story of an Extraordinary Police Dog
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“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.”

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Book:Loyal: 38 Inspiring Tales of Bravery, Heroism, and the Devotion of Dogs
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