Zaiga Kļaviņa- Dog Trainer

Professional activity is required to train and prepare service dogs. This will be provided by a second founder of the association Zaiga Kļaviņa who is a professional dog trainer with 25 years of experience in this field. After obtaining a Master’s degree in law from the Latvian Police Academy, Zaiga began service with the State Border Guard, establishing the Dog Handling Service and the Dog Handling Centre. Later, leading the State Police’s Dog Handling Centre, she established the Crime Odourology (smell comparison) laboratory. Zaiga has also worked with the State Revenue Service’s sniffer dogs who search for drugs. In the professional training service’s dog handling field, Zaiga has attended the dog handling schools of law enforcement bodies in Finland, Germany, France and the Czech Republic or collaborated with specialists from these countries.

From 2011, Zaiga started training guide dogs. She has trained 10 guide dogs. The first guide dog she trained was Teodors. Zaiga has covered all of his training and subsistence costs, and thanks to her and the donors from Finland, Teodors’ care and nutrition will be provided for the rest of his life.

Riga, January 2014.