RCMP announces winners in puppy-naming contest

INNISFAIL The puppies have names!

The RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre in Alberta received close to 21,000 entries in their contest to name the first 13 German shepherd puppies to be born at the centre this year.

All names had to start with the letter K.

For multiple entries of the same name, a draw determined the winning entry.

The names are: Koda, Kai, Kullu, Kage, Kammo, Kato, Kayla, Kazoo, Kate, Kaos, Kaya, Knight and Karma.

The 13 winners — one from each province and territory — will each receive a eight-by-10-inch laminated photo of the puppy they named, a plush dog called Justice and an official RCMP baseball cap.

“Thank you to everyone who entered the contest during this very special year in which we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada,” said Insp. Akrum Ghadban, the officer in charge of the dog training centre.

“We received numerous fantastic suggestions.”

RCMP police service dog teams search for missing or lost people, track and apprehend criminals, remove illicit drugs from the streets, detect explosives and search for evidence used in crimes.

The training centre in Innisfail is where all RCMP police dog teams in Canada are trained.

Ninety-four per cent of the German shepherds working today as RCMP service dogs were born at the centre as part of the RCMP’s police dog breeding program.