The NSW Police Force has welcomed their newest recruits: a litter of puppies, and they are calling in help from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead to give them all names.
The Dog Unit have been breeding dogs for 15 years and this is their newest litter. Six of the seven German Shepherds puppies will be trained as general-purpose dogs – but before they walk the beat, they have some very important children to see.
The other dogs will be given to the New Zealand Police Force Dog Unit as part of their puppy exchange program with Australia.
“We are working with The Children’s Hospital at Westmead to give some of the kids who are chronically ill a chance to help choose their names,” Dog Unit Commander, Superintendent Dean Smith explains.
The puppies are part of the ‘X’ litter, so will all need to be given names starting with ‘X’, which might be slightly challenging, but the Dog Unit have provided a list of names for the kids to choose from.
But naming the puppies is not all the kids will get out of this.
“Once the most popular names are chosen, we will assign the names to the pups and take them on a social outing to the hospital so the kids can meet them,” Superintendent Smith says.
“It’s something we are very proud to be involved with, in supporting those kids who are in the hospital and of course it will give them an opportunity to meet the pups that they name, hold them, interact with them, and hopefully be part of that history when they see them out on the road being police dogs.”
This has to be the sweetest thing we have seen all week – and, like us, we’re sure you just want to curl up and cuddle a puppy now, too…
