Photo: Dale Boyd

Two future RCMP members in training gathered a lot of attention at Penticton's Cherry Lane Mall, Sunday.

The Penticton RCMP Police Dog Service brought their four-month-old police dogs in training to Cherry Lane to help them learn to socialize and to help bring attention to two holiday donation campaigns.

“(It’s) a way to get more engaged with the public today and let people know more about what the police dog service does and get to see the puppies in training,” said Const. James Grandy. “And at the same time raise money, also food and donations .”

The Cram the Kennel event gathered donations of both dog and human food for the SPCA and the Salvation Army respectively.

The some-day police pooches garnered attention from many shoppers.  

“Basically as soon as they got in here at 11 o’clock there was lots of people in here willing to see them, kids and everything so it’s good,” Grandy said.

The brother and sister duo, Luger and Lexi were able to gain some good experience with socializing with people before officially entering their police training later in life, eventually becoming drug or explosive sniffing experts.

“They need to be able to be around people because they can’t be biting everybody everywhere, so they need to learn where to draw the line eventually,” Grady said. “So this is a safe environment and a different way of interacting.”