Moscow Vodolaz

Breed Rating

Breed Details

General

The Moscow Vodolaz is also known as Moscow Diver, Moscow Retriever, Moskovsky Vodolaz and Mascow Water dog. This now extinct breed was a mastiff type dog that was built from NewFoundland, East European Shepherd and Caucasian dog breeds to act as service dog. After WWII, there was shortage of working dogs in Russia as most of the dogs were claimed by war. This breed was developed by Red Star Kennel, an state operated organization chartered to provide working dogs to armed forces. Initially developed to rescue drowning people, this big dog with well developed body became very popular but the experiment of using this dog as a service dog failed because, though the dog loved to swim, it was reluctant to save the people, rather it was more eager to bite due to its highly aggressive nature towards strangers. All training failed and the breed eventually became extinct as it was unable to serve its purpose of development but not before becoming progenitors of another Russian breed, the Russian Black Terrier.

The dog had a well built, strong body that came with thick water proof coat and webbed feet that allowed the dog to swim in the water. As this breed is now extinct, it is not recognized by any kennel club and very little information is available about this large dog.

Color

The coat of this breed is said to be similar in appearance to the Landseer Newfoundland. The coat of these two dogs are said to have the same pattern, although the black on the Landseer Newfoundland is brown on the Moscow Vodolaz. Due to its extinction, not much information can be found regarding this breed.

Coat

The breed had a thick double coat that was water-resistant and served to help the dog swim.

Personality

The Moscow Voldolaz was an aggressive dog that did not like strangers around it. It was aggressive towards strangers but gentle and affectionate to few people that it knew. It had excellent swimming skills and loved water. Although, the dog was trained more and more, it could never learn to be gentle to drowning people. Instead of saying them, the dog was more intent to bite them as they were strangers to it. This breed gained fair amount of popularity due to its majestic appearance but soon became redundant for its propensity to be aggressive to all except a few people that it knew.

Care

Unknown

Training

This dog could never learnt to do what was expected of it. No matter how much training was provided to this dog, it seemed to go in vain as the dog was all itself when it came to see the results of the training. It can be assumed that it was one of the most difficult dog to train.

Activity

This breed loved water. The dog was a great swimmer with its strong body, powerful limbs, webbed paws and water-proof coat. Being a working dog, it can be assumed that it needed fair amount of exercises.