It’s a friendship that’s gone to the dogs — in a good way.
Taking her best friend’s name and using a derivative of it worked out well for Rayanna Etheridge, 8, a student at Topsail Elementary School in Conception Bay South.
Rayanna had her suggestion of Lexi chosen as one of 13 that will be used by the RCMP this year to name its newest recruits as part of the National RCMP Name the Puppy Contest.
Rayanna said her mother told her the RCMP was holding a contest to name their next group of potential service dogs. She thought about her entry, sent it in and waited.
About a month ago, she got the news she was hoping for — she won.
“I was really, really excited when I found out,” she said.
“And today was a big surprise. I had no idea we were going to do this at school. I am still really excited.”
On hand for the presentation were all of the Grade 2 students Rayanna attends school with at Topsail Elementary.
Her friend Alexis Cooper, 8, was also there, proud of her friend for winning and happy her friend named her winning entry after her.
“I was surprised she was using my name for the contest,” Alexis said. “She calls me Lexi and that was the name she decided on. I was happy for her when I found out she won.”
Rayanna and her friend had no idea what the name Lexi meant and their surprise showed on their faces when they were told it means “defender of mankind” — an apt name for a police dog.
The name Lexi is of Greek origin and is generally a female name.
Rayanna’s puppy is now training in Alberta to be an RCMP service dog, and how that training proceeds will determine if Lexi becomes a police dog.
“I am hoping to get to meet Lexi in the future,” Rayanna said.
“We are going out to Alberta to see my aunt and I hope we get to see her while we are there.”
RCMP police service dog teams are integral in front-line policing, as they search for missing or lost people, track and apprehend criminals, find illicit drugs, detect explosives and search for evidence used in crime cases.
When Rayanna is not in school, which is one of her favourite activities, she enjoys hanging out with Alexis, riding her bike, reading Junie B. Jones books, singing and dancing.
The rules for entering the contest specified that the names had to begin with the letter L and not contain more than two syllables or nine letters. Each child who entered had to be younger than 14 and a resident of Canada, with only one entry permitted per child.
All the winners whose puppy names were chosen receive a laminated photo of their namesake puppy, a plush dog called Justice and an official RCMP baseball cap.
“Every year we ask people from all across Canada to name our puppies,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Peter Clark told the students.
“We are really pleased that one of the winners is right here.”
In addition to the presentation, Rayanna and her classmates were treated to a visit from Grinch, a 4 ½-year-old German shepherd, and his handler Sgt. Bill Frisby, who answered a host of questions from the students about service dogs.
Grinch and Rayanna share something in common — both were born on March 31.
The winning names
The 13 puppies were born throughout the past year at the RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre in Innisfail, Alta.
According to the RCMP, 94 per cent of German shepherds working as RCMP service dogs today were born at the centre, located south of Red Deer in central Alberta.
The winning puppy names, along with the child who chose it, are:
Lexi: Rayanna Etheridge (Conception Bay South)
Lance: Kayla Absi (Ottawa)
Lazer: Seth Reynolds (Saint John, N.B.)
Lenyx: Jaxson Duke (Whitehorse, Yukon)
Lilly: Kaitlyn Szulc (Langley, B.C.)
Link: Jake Saunders (Yellowknife, N.W.T.)
Logan: Austyn Harper (Carseland, Alta.)
Loki: Jackson McQuade Thomson (Iqaluit, Nunavut)
Lola: Alex Bernard (Kensington, P.E.I.)
Lucy: Saydee Hlagy (Outlook, Sask.)
Luke: Dennea Fitzner (The Pas, Man.)
Luna: Fergus Porter (Antigonish, N.S.)
Lux: Arielle Provencher (Montreal, Que.)
