SOLO: The Last of the Moscow Water Dogs

In 1955, the Soviet Union introduced the Moscow Water Dog in a canine show to great acclaim; however, in real world situations, they fell far short of the expectations Russian cynologists had set for them, and in 1979, the Moscow Water Dog project was shut down. Supposedly the last of the breed died out in 1990, but did they?

Boris Davidof was a Soviet scientist who had worked intensely on the project and was unwilling to abandon what he’d seen as his greatest accomplishment. Long after the program was discontinued, he continued his research privately, creating an animal void of emotion and empathy, and willing to execute any command given without hesitation, up to and including murder.

Each dog in the program was named Solo (Single Objective Living Organism) and given a numeric identification number. During a raid on his research facility, only one Moscow Water Dog survived without being captured. He was an 8-week-old puppy, named SOLO-21, and although he was bred to be a killer, unless and until his microchip was activated… he was just a puppy.