Black Russian Terrier history

M.Sofia Allegranza Bulhak Jelski

The BRT, son of our last fifty years' history, was born to fill the void space left by dogs who flanked the Red Army's soldiers during last world war. The Soviet army was advanced in the tactical use of dogs at the point to organise, between his detachments, 168 'dog' sections; selection and training of such auxiliaries was led at the Central School for Young Breeders of Working Dogs in the famous military kennel RED STAR, in the Moscow region. At that time the director of the school was Colonel G.P. Medvedev who, remained until 1964. It was Medvedev who directed and followed the creation of the breed. With these words he explained requirements that moved his work:

To reconstruct ranks of military dogs, Soviets imported working breeds from occupied countries, mainly from Germany; so the Giant Schnauzer named ROY, today recognised as the stock dog of the breed, found his way to the State kennel. The few dogs collected were not enough to breed single breeds, and so, began a challenging experiment of crossings at the same time empiric and based on the experience of the Soviet biologists. In this work ROY, born in 1947, showed to be very interesting: 62cm. height, not perfectly straight legs and level bite, but strong and robust. From his mating with female of different breeds were born, between 1951 and 1954, 146 puppies, 57 of them obtained "excellent" qualification. These new borne were black and so, were distinguished in the "Black Terrier Group". Mothers were Airedale Terriers, Rottweiller's and Moscow Water Dogs; This latter breed Moscow water Dog was produced always in the Red Star kennels, crossing Caucasian Ovcharka, Newfoundland and German Shepherd. Individuals chosen in that first generation were immediately mated between them.

  ROI × AIREDALE TERRIER 

In 1952 from ROI and airedale terrier sisters SOTTA, SIMA e SALMA, were born big, black and aggressive airedale terriers, amongst them HAITAR, HTORA E HIJA.

 ROI × ROTTWEILER 

Rottweiler sisters UNA, URMA and UDA gave birth with ROI to bigger dogs. From their offsprings were choosen AZART, VAH e ARAI, born in 1954.

 ROI × MOSCOW WATER DOG 

Moscow Water Dog females were mated to ROI and to his offsprings o ai suoi discendenti; their names were HANKA,  TINA, TIZA e UFA. Form this group came CHUBARIK.

ROY didn't remained for long the only male of the harem, later other males were used: Rottweiler (Beniamino), Giant Schnauzers (Dasso and Ditter) and Moscow Water Dog (Grum).

 BENIAMINO × ROY's offsprings

Many other breeds that took part to this experiment are recalled more for curiosity more over then for their real contribution: Moscow Dog, Lajkas, Borzois, National Sheepdog breeds; in all it is possible to count One-Hundred dogs which contributed towards the creation of the breed. In order to consolidate, the work applied close inbreeding essentially with ROY. Second and third generation were publicly presented at an exhibition in 1957 and the first puppies left the Red Star to go and live with families of breeders clubs', members of the DOSSAF (All Arms' Auxiliaries Organization). Thus begun a close co-operation between the Central School and the clubs diffused in countries of he Union; dogs were leaving and returning, but mainly they worked. Aptitude to work was the first parameter of selection. Clubs cared the aspect even with independent choices, like preferring the long coat we actually know and that the Army considered not being functional. In 1958 the publication of the first breed standard in the "Guide To Training and Use Of Military Dogs", allowed breeders to uniform the breed type which they were striving to achieve over the next decades. And so, they bred to eliminate defects of stock dogs and the problems arisen using in-breeding dogs of totally different morphology, with one problem being the teeth and bite. Versatility researched in this breed had to allow the dog to perform many services independently under harsh climatic conditions: were Anti-Tank dogs, Search Mine-Dogs and Sabotage-Dogs. They transported food and ammunitions to the front and deposed transmission cables; found wounded soldiers on the battle fields and pulled sledge and soldier in snow. BRT's took part in three winter expeditions in the north of the Union and also, took part in the Wars in Afghanistan. When they were not involved in more important tasks, they accompanied sentries in the guard duty at potentially strategic objects. More recently they took part at the Mine Research Campaign in Bosnia. Character showed to be very well-balanced, reliable and aggressive when the need arose; they are very receptive to training, the BRT becomes deeply affectionate to his soldier/master and badly suffers change. These characteristic are today still alive. In 1968 the FCI was informed of the new born breed and registered the BRT's Breed Standard. Soon after this the first BRT's crossed the borders. The FCI's recognition was in 1984 with the standard #327, which followed only after 3 years of the official recognition of the Soviet Agricultural Ministry. According to proposes' request, the breed was at that time inscribed in the 3rd Group, 'Terriers', but later was moved to the 2nd Group, 'Pincher, Schnauzer type dogs, Molosso', certainly a more suitable group for this breed. Then started the Western conquest with imports of our breeders and with the emigration of Russian breeders moving on to live the States, in Canada and Israel thus showing the real aptitude of the BRT, to adapt in different climatic conditions and even the English Kennel Club has recognised the breed as the "Russian Black Terrier" in the Working Group. More recently the American Kennel Club has approuved his breed standard. Today the breed is young, still only 12 -14 generation, sound in body and uncorrupted in the character as was desired by the Army. Soon to be received in families the world over, the breed integrates ideally and beautifully. The military origin of the 'BRT', and the questionable attributes as the K.G.Beast. This must not confuse the fancier, this breed is truly proven by the many women who are totally involved with this versatile dog: names of the executives of the Russian Breed Club together with the well known breeders, are female.