Parents, your children are wanted by the police.
The RCMP wants their help for this year’s Name the Puppy contest. Thirteen German shepherd puppies will be born this year at the police dog training centre in Innisfail, Alta.
Police service pups Lager and Lugg were at BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey on Monday to help launch the contest. The German shepherds were born in December and have already begun their year-and-half-long training.
Const. Scott MacLeod says the German shepherd is the breed of choice.
“They have super high drive, they are extremely loyal,” he says. “The other thing about us is that we’re a national police force so we have weather we have to deal with.”
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A dog has a 17-per-cent chance of passing the training program because the standards are so high.
The RCMP Police Dog Service was the first in the world to develop a way to have their dogs safely detect the powerful opioid fentanyl, according to a release.
The force has about 170 dog teams across Canada, and it costs an estimated $60,000 to train a member and a dog team.
The dog names must begin with the letter M, be no more than nine letters, and be only one or two syllables. MacLeod says they move up one letter in the alphabet every year so later trainers and breeders can easily determine the dog’s age.
Entries must be submitted by March 26. Contestants must live in Canada and be 14 years or younger.
The 13 kids whose names get picked will each win a laminated 8×10 photo of the puppy they name, a plush dog named Justice, and an RCMP baseball cap.
For more information, check out the contest website.
joti.grewal@bpdigital.ca
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