Kids in Hawke's Bay Hospital children's ward name police puppy

Kaya Rosser was overwhelmed with excitement to meet Pace, with Constable Ryan Gordon. Photo / Supplied

There was a whole lot of puppy love for police pup Pace as he was gifted the best thing of all, his name.

Hawke's Bay Hospital children's ward's patients were recently tasked with the responsibility of naming the NZ Police puppy in training.

The task was taken on by approximately 10 children and they had to think of names starting with the letter P.

Each police dog litter is assigned a letter from the alphabet and this puppy was from the P litter.

The young patients came up with all kinds of names such as Pikachu, Pulse and Pace.

His carer Constable Ryan Gordon brought the puppy to the children's ward for a visit last week, where the eventual name "Pace" was decided.

A HBDHB spokeswoman said staff and patients enjoyed meeting Pace who was "super adorable and friendly".

"We think Pace is going to make a great Police dog because he was able to sniff out treats very easily."

The puppy, from the police dog breeding programme near Wellington, is nine weeks old and being looked after by Constable Ryan Gordon.