Moscow Water Dog Information & Dog Breed Facts

Though now extinct, the Moscow water dog was formerly a fluffy four-footer that inspired the development of the Black Russian Terrier.

The Russian government and navy originally commissioned the production of the Moscow Water Dog but because the breed is no longer around and it was created as a military project, there are still a ton of things that we don’t know about these dogs.

Originally, the government aimed to create the ultimate rescue dog.

The plan was to combine a few of the largest dog breeds available, together with the qualities required for the job, into one super-swimming, water-rescue pup. More specifically, the breeders used Newfoundlands, Caucasian Shepherd dogs, and East European Shepherds to create the breed.

They thought that the gentle nature of Newfoundland, with the work ethic, power, and bravery of the Caucasian and Eastern European shepherds would make an excellent mix and a perfect versatile water rescue dog.

However, the breed was only developed by the state-run "Red Star Kennels" under the direction of Colonel G. P. Medvedev since they were destined for particularly critical tasks.

Newfoundland males were first bred to East European Shepherd females and Caucasian Shepherd females. The pups would subsequently be linebred until a distinct breed, the Russian Water Dog, was born.

Furthermore, the Army handed its new invention over to the Navy for testing, believing they had achieved their goal of not just generating a better water rescue dog than the Newfoundland, but also a more flexible breed capable of doing sentry and shoreline duties.

This new breed proved to be a good swimmer, as well as a vigilant, trainable, and intelligent coastal sentry dog who could survive frigid weather and icy water.

However, there was one big issue. When released to save a scared and drowning sailor, the breed's natural instinct was to swim straight to them and attack them in the sea.

A terrifying experience for the victim, who if they did not drown fighting off the dog would then likely try and drown the dog in order to defend themselves from the onslaught of gnashing teeth.

As it would turn out the breed picked up some of the more aggressive tendencies from the east European shepherd and they ended up being more aggressive than desired, which limited their ability to perform water rescues.

The Moscow water dog was more likely to bite victims than to save them in the end, regardless of whether they were drowning or on land.

Having clearly failed to create the ultimate water rescue dog, Red Star Kennels abandoned the experiment in the late 1960s but tried to save face by commercializing the newly created breed as the Russian Newfoundland and selling it to civilians.

Those civilians and civilian breeders that were duped into purchasing one of these dogs were not nearly as inclined to experiment with the breed as the military.

These breeders would eventually outcross in so many purebred Newfoundland dogs attempting to tame the dogs temperament that by the 1980s the Russian Newfoundland could no longer be distinguished from the original, resulting in the extinction of the Russian Newfoundland through dilution with the actual Newfoundland Dog.

However, the Russian Water Dog’s genes were not completely lost as state-run kennels did have some success in creating other breeds like the Moscow Great Dane, using the German Shepherd Dog and Great Dane; the Brudasty Hound, which was an Airedale Terrier and Russian Hound mix; the Moscow Watchdog, a combination of St. Bernard and Caucasian Ovcharka; and the Black Russian Terrier.

The last one being the most successful breed to come out of the program, the Russian Black Terrier gained international recognition in 1984 and is derived from a combination of 14 different breeds, including the Moscow Water Dog in the later stages of its development.

This is also the reason that the Black Russian Terrier gets to claim the Newfoundland Dog as an ancestor, as it received second-hand Newfoundland Dog blood from the Moscow Water-Dog.

The failure of the Moscow Water Dog would mark the first and last time that the Russian Navy would allow the Russian Army to develop a breed of dog for them.

Overall, the Russian government's desire to have a water rescue dog is still strong to this day and in many areas of the country dog training centers still operate under the auspices of the federal rescue agency and the Emergency Situations Ministry.

Having learned from the mistakes of the past, instead of trying to create a new breed they have opted instead to stick with the tried and true original Newfoundland dog for this purpose.