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Help YVR name its first litter of adorable service puppies

Partnership with PADS gives puppies-in-training exposure to airports and travel
YVR puppies
YVR is getting a new litter of service puppies from PADS and is asking for help with the names.

News from YVR Airport isn’t always about flight delays and bumpy landings.

On Monday the YVR Airport Twitter account had just the thing to brighten any Vancouverite’s morning: puppies.

While these three Labrador retrievers won’t actually work at YVR when they’re older, the airport recently went into partnership with PADS after its employees overwhelmingly chose to support the organization through an employee giving program at the end of last year.

YVR puppy sleep
Source: Twitter/@yvrairport

“One of the main pillars of the airport is accessibility and that’s why we exist, to improve the independence of people with physical disabilities,” Tara Doherty, communication manager for PADS told the Richmond News.

Doherty said the partnership is an opportunity for service puppies in training to be exposed to airports and travel.

“We hope down the road, as we continue to work together, to have learning opportunities for our puppies at the airport. Most of them will travel with their future partners so having those opportunities to experience things like going through security, and boarding a plane and learning to settle, all those kinds of things that typically are hard for us to give our puppies,” Doherty said.

“For us our dream would be that every puppy in our program experiences air travel before we match the client."

As the puppies grow up, they eventually take on one of four jobs: a service dog, hearing dog, accredited facility dog or PTSD dog for veterans and first responders.

YVR is taking your airport-themed suggestions for the puppies' names via Twitter with the hashtag #YVRPADSPUPS.

Oh, and they’ve just floated this incentive to think creatively: “Forgot to mention that the person who chooses a winning name gets a snuggle session with the puppies!”

yvr puppy
Source: Twitter/@yvrairport
With files from Alyse Kotyk of Richmond News.