The Black Russian Terrier in Germany

Summary of the breed booklet “Der Terrier” Edition 9/1997

The Black Russian Terrier has been recognised in Germany since 1982. At this time a 12-month old female dog named Gipsy was imported directly from Moscow. Nearly at the same time there was a 3-year old male dog named Kim-Boy that had been brought by a German-Soviet married couple, when it immigrated into the BRD. The two dogs came from the Moscow breed.
The first litter of this contact “Kim Boy x Gipsy” was given birth on 15th/11/85, the second on 12th/7/87. Two more litters of an own offspring female dog followed. Each of the three families acquired one female dog from the first two litters. It was a pity that the HD roentgen results did not allow to enlarge further breeding. In spite of having been hardly disappointed the three families had caught fire. They were fascinated of this breed.
Now a hard procedure began. Independent from each other the families tried to make contacts to Russia via Poland, via Hungary or to Russia directly. From the middle to the end of the 80s it was nearly impossible to find or even acquire a good “Russian” in the east. After numerous nightly calls – communicating was always calamity – and after writing letters one of the families left for Poland in 1988.
There, they could purchase two little male dogs, which had come from Russia. The second family got two pups under similar circumstances from Hungary. The third family acquired two pups directly from Soviet Union, Scharm-Chan and Glafira Grad.
Shortly after the families had the chance to acquire a 12-month old male dog and 12-month old male dog from Leningrad.
Because of their good roentgen results and their excellent look, these three male dogs – Scharm-Chan, Devi and Azjat were decisively involved in establishing the breed in Germany.
The first female dogs of the breed also came from that Soviet Union. After the frontiers to the east had been opened, it now was easier to get a Black Russian Terrier here and there. That’s why the breeding basis became larger bit by bit. A big problem of the pups, imported from the east, has been till now hip dysplasia, so that a great number of these dogs were not suitable for breeding.
Retrospect: world dog show in Dortmund in 1991. It had been announced 56 Black Terriers, an enormous number. Black Russian Terriers from Belgium, Italy, Austria, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Poland and naturally from Germany were to be seen. The circle of nationalities was as colourful as the appearance of the dogs. First of all the different kinds of trimming were evident. Completely untrimmed dogs, others shortcut, like Giantschnauzers, and finally correctly poodle sheared dogs were to be seen. In the meantime the dogs’ appearance became more and more uniform. The Black Terrier should have the look of a trimmed untrimmed dog.
Obviously it plays an important role that the TC took over the support after the breed had been accepted in 1982. Because of meeting more and more perfectly trimmed Terriers, people wished to stress the dog’s advantages by professional trimming.
At the world dog show in Budapest in 1996, you could realise that the dogs of the breeders from the east showed a professional trimming. Here too rethinking had taken place.