Rambo’s face was bloodied and disfigured following a rocket assault in eastern Ukraine. It was unknown if he would live because shrapnel had severely damaged the right side of his head. The emergency surgery performed on the 3-year-old German shepherd, who had followed Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the conflict, saved his life. As a reminder that canines — and people — with disabilities may achieve great things, Rambo is currently training with the Budapest police force in Hungary.
Now that he has recovered from his close call with death in the Kharkiv province of northeastern Ukraine, Rambo is learning how to engage with kids, seniors, and people with disabilities at police demonstrations and rehabilitation facilities, according to Lt. Col. Maria Stein of the Budapest Metropolitan Police.
The department’s crime prevention program includes demonstrating the duties carried out by canine units with the aim of teaching young people to be more tolerant and accept one another’s differences, according to Stein.
“Nowadays, unfortunately, it happens that children mock each other because they wear glasses, because they have braces, because their ears look funny or whatever — because they’re different,” she said. “With Rambo, we might be able to sensitize these children a little and show them that, yes, he is injured, he’s different, but he can do the same things as other dogs.”
Rambo’s path to becoming a police officer wasn’t simple
Rambo’s path to becoming a police officer wasn’t simple. Last year, chunks of his skull were blown away, his jaw was broken, and his right ear was seriously mangled by shrapnel from the rocket attack that also injured three Ukrainian soldiers.
Rambo was transported to safety in western Ukraine following his initial surgery. Soon after, Violetta Kovacs, the leader of a Hungarian rescue group for German shepherds, picked him up and brought him to a treatment facility close to Budapest.
“The dog needed immediate help,” Kovacs, head of the German Shepherd Breed Rescue Foundation, said. “We had to operate again here in Hungary because several of his teeth were causing him great pain because of the injury, which required immediate intervention.”
Rambo spent eight months in the facility having his right ear severed, his jaw repaired, and many teeth extracted. According to Kovacs, he underwent training to mix with other dogs, but his affection for kids was evident right away.
His survival was “a miracle”
Rambo was later adopted by Gyula Desko, a lieutenant colonel with the Budapest Metropolitan Police, who gave him a home and more training.
Rambo was described as a “very friendly, good-natured dog” who is learning quickly and whose survival was “a miracle.”
“Working with him requires more patience and more attention, as we do not know what kind of mental problems his head injury caused him,” Desko said, but Rambo is “so open with people and accepts them, despite his injuries and the shock that befell him.”
It’s those qualities, Desko said, that the police force hopes will inspire those who meet Rambo to open themselves to kindness and acceptance.
“As a police dog, one can see through him that you can live a full life even when injured, and can be a useful member of society and do very diverse things,” Desko said.