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Langley girl wins contest and names one of 13 fluffy RCMP puppies

Kaitlyn Szulc of Langley, B.C. was chosen as one of the winners of the 2018 RCMP Name the Puppy contest.
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Link, one of the puppies born at the Police Dog Services Training Centre this year. Image: RCMP

A young Langley girl is one of 13 kids from across Canada that got to name an RCMP puppy.

Kaitlyn Szulc, eight, chose the name Lilly for one of the 13 pups that all took on a moniker beginning with the letter L.

As a Grade 3 student at Dorothy Peacock Elementary, she has a “little buddy” in kindergarten named Lilly, and chose to name it after her young friend.

Sadly, Kaitlyn doesn’t have a dog of her own, due to allergies. But the youngster – who is big into dance and gymnastics, joined her peers in Mrs. Besuschko’s class in drawing pictures and entering the RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre puppy naming contest.

“Thank you to all the children who sent in their suggestions,” said Staff Sgt. Gary Creed, acting Officer in Charge of the PDSTC.

“We couldn’t be more proud of our pups and these new names will serve them well.”

Related: RCMP puppy contest starts with a name, ends with a bond

“Kaitlyn doesn’t have any pets but she loves animals and wishes she had a dog,” said her mother Tracy.

Likewise, Kaitlyn loves to draw and colour, and she was just one of the students in her clas to enter the contest.

“Her teacher never expected anyone to win,” said Tracy. “She just thought it was something fun to enter… It was all very exciting for Kaitlyn. She thinks she is famous now.”

The names of the first 13 puppies to be born at the PDSTC in Innisfail, Alberta, were suggested by children representing every province and territory in Canada.

Staff at the centre chose the names from nearly 15,000 entries.

For each of the children who won, they will receive a stuff dog, and RCMP hat, and a photo of the dog they named.

The picture hasn’t arrived yet, Mom confirmed. “But, when it does, her teacher is going to have it presented to her in the classroom.”

All names had to start with the letter L. For multiple entries of the same name, a draw determined the winning entry.

Lazer and Luke, two of the puppies born at the Police Dog Services Training Centre this year. Image: RCMP

The winning entries are:

  • Lance : Kayla Absi (Ottawa, Ontario)
  • Lazer : Seth Reynolds (Saint John, New Brunswick)
  • Lenyx : Jaxson Duke (Whitehorse, Yukon)
  • Lexi : Rayanna Etheridge (Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador)
  • Lilly : Kaitlyn Szulc ( Langley, British Columbia)
  • Link : Jake Saunders (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories)
  • Logan : Austyn Harper (Carseland, Alberta)
  • Loki : Jackson McQuade Thomson (Iqaluit, Nunavut)
  • Lola : Alex Bernard (Kensington, Prince Edward Island)
  • Lucy : Saydee Hlagy (Outlook, Saskatchewan)
  • Luke : Dennea Fitzner (The Pas, Manitoba)
  • Luna : Fergus Porter (Antigonish, Nova Scotia)
  • Lux : Arielle Provencher (Montreal, Quebec)

The 13 winners will each receive a laminated 8×10-inch laminated photo of the puppy they named, a plush dog called Justice and an official RCMP baseball cap.

The RCMP states that police service dog teams are an important part of front line policing. 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 RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre is the training centre for all RCMP police dog teams in Canada.

Ninety-four percent of the German shepherds working today as RCMP service dogs were born at the PDSTC as part of the RCMP Police Dog Breeding Program.

Related: YVR wants you to help name three new puppies

Related: Meet Morgan, the Shuswap’s snow shovelling dog

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Lilly, named by Kaitlyn Szulc of Langley, is one of the puppies born at the Police Dog Services Training Centre this year. Image: RCMP
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