On Saturday, 1 October, Riga hosted an international guide dog competition. The competition featured pairs of competitors from Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The Latvian team was represented by Līga Ķikute with her dog Rīga and Viktors Sergejevs with his dog Neira. This time, the competition was organised by Latvia in the form of the Service dog association TEODORS and its trainers, members and volunteer helpers. Throughout the day, all the participants were provided with snacks and hot drinks, along with a warm welcome at the premises of the Lettonia fraternity in central Riga.

Despite a forecast that promised rain, Saturday turned out to be a gloriously sunny day. All the participants arrived promptly, ensuring that the competition could begin on time. The route was devised by trainer Juha Herttuainen. Setting out alongside the first competitors, I quickly realised that the chosen route was quite complicated, and found myself worrying about the prospects of our competitors. The participants had to overcome several complicated crossings and negotiate various obstacles. Along the way, they had to cross a canal, wend their way through the narrow cobbled streets of the Old Town of Riga, and the dogs had to undergo an obedience test. The route ended at the Opera House. Every participant was given an hour to complete the route. After the starting order was determined at random, the competitors headed to the start. The competition was judged by three judges from each participating country. The Latvian judge was Zaiga Kļaviņa

The first competitor was Gerli Kangur with her dog Mattias from Estonia. To everyone’s surprise and delight, she negotiated the demanding route safely and with distinction, in the process comfortably beating the previous year’s winners with 93 points. We were really anxious about how our competitors would fare, and tried to support and encourage them in various ways. In contrast to the other participants, who had taken part in this competition several times previously, and who had won it, our participants were taking part for the first time; moreover, with dogs with whom they’d been paired together for just a few months. Trainer Zaiga Kļaviņa stressed that it’s not important where you finish in the competition; what matters is the experience each competitor gets. That’s why it’s important that this international competition should be open to anyone.

At the end of the competition, the judges decided on the finishing order of the participants, which was as follows: first place went to Gerli Kangur with her dog Mattias from Estonia with 93 points, second place went to Esko Karmala with Etta from Finland with 89 points, while Erkki Virtanen with Pepsi from Finland finished third with 86 points. Fourth place went to home competitor Viktors Sergejevs with his dog Neira who received 83 points, while participants from Estonia and Latvia finished 5th and 6th respectively with 80.7 points: Kai Kuusk with Janet and Līga Ķikute with Rīga. Barring a slight misunderstanding between Līga and Rīga, Līga would have finished 4th.

In the team standings, the team from Finland finished 1st with 175.5 points, the Estonian team finished 2nd with 173.5 points, while the Latvians finished 3rd with 163.75 points.
Despite the fact that we were slightly disappointed, trainers Zaiga and Juha didn’t hide their satisfaction with our performance. The competition ended with warm words of congratulation and encouragement, a lottery and a joint dinner.

Thank you to everyone, who helped to organise the competition including Zaiga Kļaviņa, Juha Herttuainen, Velga Zēgnere, Marika Kaisala for her delicious cake, Gunta Bite and Sāra Strazdiņa. Last, but not least, thank you to all the volunteers.

See you next year in Estonia!
Ligita Damberga, Riga, October 2016.