INNISFAIL — The RCMP has announced the winners of the nationwide 2020 Name the Puppy contest.
“The winning names will be given to the first 13 puppies born at the Police Dog Services Training Centre (PDSTC) in 2020,” reads a portion of a press release issued Wednesday, April 29.
Staff Sgt. Gary Creed, the senior trainer and acting officer in charge of the Police Dog Service Training Centre near Innisfail, expressed gratitude to all the children who participated, as well as teachers who include the contest as part of their class work.
“These 13 names will serve our dogs with pride,” said Creed.
Rotating through letters of the alphabet, this year’s submissions were required to start with the letter N. In instances when there were multiple entries of the same name, a draw determined the winner, reads the statement.
The winning entries are:
• Nanuq: Hunter Lowe, from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
• Narco: Lucas Beyea, from Loon Lake, Sask.
• Narley: Avery Moreau, from Surrey, B.C.
• Neeka: Logan Grant, from Cornwall, Ont.
• Nelly: Thomas Lafrenière, from Gatineau, Qué.
• Nero: Malcolm Costain, from Elmsdale, P.E.I.
• Newman: Landon MacDougall, from Truro, N.S.
• Nina: Aleesha Hanna, from Napan, N.B.
• Nixon: Gannon Myers, from Port au Choix, Nfld. and Labrador
• Niya: Sabella Nickerson, from Bowden, Alta.
• Noah: Jeremiah Olson, from Fort McPherson, N.W.T.
• Nova: Maddison Cresswell, from Carcross, Yukon
• Nytro: Denise Tackaberry, from Kelwood, Man.
The winners will each receive a laminated eight by 10-inch picture of the pup they named, a plush dog named Justice, as well as an RCMP water bottle.
Kim Mans, an administration staff member, said more than 10,000 online entries and more than 2,000 mail-in submissions were received this year. The contest started in mid-February, and the deadline for entries was March 25.
“It’s fun for us to see how many kids get excited about the contest and enter,” said Mans, later adding next year’s letter will be O.
Entries were down compared with last year, when about 30,000 online and mail-in submissions were received, she said, speculating challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic might have played a role.
The contest, which first started in 2001, helps to get children excited about the RCMP and introduces them to what the service does for communities across the country, she said.
RCMP police service dog teams are an important part of frontline policing, according to police.
“They 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 facility is the training centre for all RCMP police dog teams in Canada. “All the German shepherds working today as RCMP service dogs were born at the PDSTC as part of the RCMP Police Dog Breeding Program.”
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