An opportunity for all young, imaginative minds across the nation has returned for another year. The Police Dog Service Training Centre's (PDSTC) annual "name the puppy" challenge asks for postcard submissions from young children with names for this spring's new lot of German shepherd police pups that will begin training soon.
The deadline for name entries is March 9. The 10 chosen names will be announced on April 5. Winning names will be decided by the PDSTC staff while the remaining submissions will be considered for other puppies born during the year. Last year, more than 3,000 names were entered.
Contest rules state only one name is allowed per entry, for female or male pups. This year's assigned letter is "E" and the name can be a maximum of nine letters with one or two syllables. Applicants must live in Canada and be 16 years of age or younger.
"We have already had two healthy litters of pups born in the previous weeks; ready for names," said Brenda Sawyer, breeding program assistant. The training centre encourages participants to take into consideration when envisioning names that these are working dogs, ergo, names should reflect the dogs' lives, work and service to us as citizens, she said.
The Police Dog Service Training Centre has been situated in Innisfail since 1965, being a valuable asset to the RCMP. The centre's breeding program now brings up and trains, "upwards of 80 per cent of current full profile German shepherd teams working on the force in Canada," said Sawyer.
About 40 per cent of pups from the centre actually become working police dogs, making the selection process considerably exact and rigorous. The service training centre also sells pups to private individuals.
Children from across the country are encouraged to take part in this unique contest to play a role in cultivating a part of Canada's well-known tradition.
