Lithuania’s corgi racers run at their own pace

[VILNIUS] Corgi owners waved toys, treats and even a broom on Saturday (Aug 150 to coax their dogs over the finish line at a race in Lithuania’s capital, where many of the competitors seemed more interested in sniffing around than winning.

Around 130 corgis from eight countries took part in the annual event in a wooded park in Vilnius, drawing a couple of thousand spectators to what organisers bill as the “European Corgi Capital”.

In race after race, some dogs froze at the start, others stopped mid-run to play with rivals, while a few turned around and headed back the way they came.

“Well, they are one of the slowest dogs in the world. I guess that has something to do with (people coming to watch)”, organiser Edvinas Miskas Grinius said. “So a corgi race is an oxymoron in itself. And that’s why it is great fun. It’s all laughs,” he added.

Grinius launched the event six years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic, expecting only friends and family to watch his and a friend’s corgis race.

Instead, hundreds turned up. The gathering has since become an annual event, broadcast in Lithuania and the United States.

Away from the track, visitors cheered a corgi costume parade and a competition to find the loudest bark.

The winner of the latter, Mr Corgington from California, registered 111 decibels, roughly the noise level of a chainsaw, while furiously trying to reach a chew toy waved by his owner.

“I would say it’s not a favourable trait to have a loud bark, but it comes in handy at events apparently”, owner Zane Strong explained.

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Corgis are best known for being the favourite dogs of Queen Elizabeth II, and their distinctive long bodies with short legs.

In the costume competition, judged by Britain’s deputy ambassador, corgis and their owners turned up as clowns, medieval nobles and cowboys, with one dog cast as a horse.

The winning entry featured a six-year-old girl dressed as a duke and her corgi, Amigo, as the legendary Iron Wolf that inspired the duke to found Vilnius.

Amigo tolerated the costume, which took a week to make, but was “not very happy about it”, his owner Akvile said. REUTERS