Pixel, Polly and Preston.

Those are three of the 13 winning names submitted by kids from across Canada for the 2021 RCMP Name the Puppy contest.

鈥淚 was amazed by the level of participation from across Canada. This is my first year as the head of the Police Dog Service Training Centre and I鈥檓 extremely proud that our contest reached so many children,鈥� said Insp. Alana McLeod, Officer in Charge of RCMP Police Dog Services.

More than 20,000 online entries were submitted for the contest, and of them 13 were selected. All names had to start with the letter 鈥楶鈥� and for entries of the same name, a draw determined the winner.

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The winning entries are:

Paisley 鈥� Jaden Jones (Val-des-Monts, Quebec)

Pax 鈥� Mathias Levesque (Saint-Andr茅, New Brunswick)

Pepper 鈥� Leanna Kautuq (Clyde River, Nunavut)

Peyak 鈥� Kinsley Thomas (Wabowden, Manitoba)

Peyton 鈥� Peyton Short (Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador)

Phantom 鈥� Hunter Kamphuis (Mermaid, Prince Edward Island)

Phazer 鈥� Darius Brevick (Prince George, British Columbia)

Phelan 鈥� Emmet Blake (St. Catharines, Ontario)

Piper 鈥� Jersey Ganes (Sherwood Park, Alberta)

Pixel 鈥� Adele Mcneely (Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories)

Polly 鈥� Aviendha Clark (Whitehorse, Yukon)

Preston 鈥� Michael Hill (Kentville, Nova Scotia)

Pria 鈥� Zach Ross (White City, Saskatchewan)

The winning names will be given to the first 13 German shepherd puppies born at the Police Dog Service Training Centre in Innisfail, Alta. this year.

Each of the 13 winners will receive a laminated 8脳10-inch photo of the pup they named, a plush dog named Justice and an RCMP water bottle.

For those who want a head start thinking of names for next year鈥檚 contest, all names in 2022 must start with the letter R.

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