Mounties announce names of latest litter of police puppies

The Centre received a record-setting 34,714 entries from children across Canada.

RCMP put out a call to the public to help name its newest police dogs earlier this year and the policing agency says a record number of entries were received from children across the country.

The Name the Puppy Contest was announced in February and Canadians were invited to come up with names for the 13 German Shepherd puppies that were born at the Police Dog Services Training Centre in Innisfail.

The names had to start with the letter ‘M’ and officials say a record-setting 34,714 entries were submitted.

The winning entries are:

"This year's response was remarkable," said Inspector Bill Long, Officer in Charge of the Police Dog Services Training Centre, in a release. "Thank you to all the children, parents and teachers who entered the contest. These names will serve our dogs with pride."

The children whose names were chosen will receive an RCMP baseball cap, a plush dog called Justice and a photo of the puppy they named.

This year’s contest beat the previous record by more than 13,000 entries.

The puppies are part of the RCMP Police Dog Breeding Program and will be trained to conduct searches for people and evidence and to track criminals, drugs and explosives.

For more information on the RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre in Innisfail, click HERE.