Get acquainted – Zuze!
Date of birth: 15. July 2016
Breed: Labrador retriever
Color: Black

In mid-summer of 2016, Elfa, our wonderful guide-dog, gave birth to three puppies: Zuze, Vera and Hugo! All three are now conscientious guide-dogs: Vera and Zuze work in Latvia, are our Society’s dogs, and Hugo has traveled to Finland. 

In the fall of 2018, Zuze met vision-impaired Lolita, started training together and both got along very well. In Lolita’s words:

For several years it has been difficult for me to move about alone in the dark, and the time came to move around with a white cane or take a guide-dog. One summer day the Service dog society’s dog handler asked my daughter to help in dog testing. I went along to this event. Everything we saw so impressed us, that the decision was made on the spot, and the next day I submitted a request to receive a guide-dog. Shortly thereafter I was offered Zuze. And so Zuze entered my life, my family’s as well as my heart.

Everything changed!

My usual daily routine changed upside down. Under Zuze’s trainer Santa’s supervision, an intensive three-week training course started. We walked through city streets and parks, went to various state and local institutions, drove to our country home, in order for Zuze to learn her new routes. That was an experience! During our first trip Zuze for the first time saw live horses. The first horse approached with a rider, but the second – harnessed to a cart. Zuze was so startled – barking, with all the fur on her back raised. Good thing Santa was there! She showed how to react and control the dog in such a situation. After that I understood – you need to know the theory, but nothing beats practical lessons and real life practical situations and analysis. Even now I learn something very important and useful during practical and theoretical lessons.
More and more I trust Zuze. It’s an odd feeling when, going along dark streets, I have to entirely depend on the dog. I am 100% dependent on the dog’s knowledge.

But Zuze is not just a guide-dog. During her free time, she is the house pet and super babysitter, who gladly wakes my little girl each morning – she takes one of the girl’s favourite toys and places it next to her in her bed. “Babysitter” never forgets to fondle my little girl – each morning she licks her and waits for loving pats in return.

Lolita Korjapina, December 2018 (story from magazine “ROSME”)