The History of Vizsla

Shorthaired Hungarian Vizsla is an indigenous Hungarian hunting hound

Its ancients could be some kind of eastern hound, which came from Asia to Europe with Hungarian conquests. In the 18th century it was crossbreeded in Hungary with turkish yellowhaired hounds. The breed was developed with more foreign hunting hound species in the 19th century before it got the characteristics, which are known nowadays. Wirehaired type of vizsla has been known for more than 40 years.
Wirehaired german vizsla was the part of breeding as well. The name „Vizsla” refers to its behaviour. Because of its hunting talents, aristocratic appearence and warm personality it was the favorite of the landed gentry. Larousse encyclopedia: Vizsla [examine (in Hungarian)]: I. noun A hound dog with floppy ears and long legs which finds, points the wild animals by smell. II. adj Seeking, searching (glance) New Hungarian Lexicon: Vizsla: Kind of hounds which points the quarry by scent or seek them, and demonstrate their location to the hunter with the sign of their raised foreleg or their tail held high. Types: Yellow Hungarian Vizsla, Weimaraner, German (wirehaired and shorthaired) Pointer, Würtemberger, Brittany, etc.

HEAD

Its skull is moderately wide, slightly domed. A slightly pronounced groove runs from the moderately developed occiput towards the stop. Its plane forms an angle of approximately 30 degrees with the nose. Stop is moderate.
Facial region – measured the line connecting the nose with the inner corners of eyes- is always shorter than the 50% of the full length of head.
Fang is proportionately long. Cheeks are strong, well muscled. Jaws are powerful with a perfect, regular and complete scissors bite. Lips fit tightly, there are no pendulous flews. Its face has an intelligent and lively expression. Eyes are slightly oval, of medium size. Eyelids are well fitting. The brown eye colour harmonising with the coat colour, as dark as possible preferred. Leathers are at medium length, set on medium height, a little backwards, hanging closely to the cheeks, ending in a rounded V shape. Their length is approximately 75% of the total length of head. Neck is of medium lenght, well arched, skin fits tightly at the throat. Neck fits to the trunk at medium height.

FOREQUARTERS

Viewed from the front forequarters are straight, bones are strong and elbows are closed to the body. Ideally the length of upper arm bone has nearly the same lenght as shoulder blade. They should form an angle approximately 90-100 degrees.

BODY

It should be muscled and proportionate. Body is a little longer than withers. Withers is pronounced and muscular. Back is taut and straight. Loin is broad, tight, muscular, straight or slightly arched. The loin is well attached. If tail set on ideally the axis of pelvis bone and tail axis form an angle approximately 90-100 degrees. Chest is medium deep and broad. Last ribs moderately arched. Shoulders are well muscled. They are long, sloping and flat, well attached shoulder blade. Elastic when moving. Tail sets on at medium height, strong at the base, then tapering. In countries where tail docking is not prohibited by law, the tail may be shortened by one quarter. On the move, it is raised up to the horizontal.

HINDQUARTERS

Upper thights are well muscled, medium angulated with hock joints in the lower part. Paws are closed and mildly oval. Toes and pads are strong.

SKIN AND COAT

Skin is tightly fitting, without folds. It is well pigmented. The colour of the lips and of the eyerims are brown. Nose is flesh-colored. Pads are slate. Hair is wiry, close lying, strong, dense and not glossy. The belly should be covered with shorter, softer and slightly thinner hair; the coat on the head and on the leathers is shorter and, at the same time, a little darker, however, not soft and dense. The hair on tail is longer. The colour could be various shades of russet gold and dark sandy gold. Some little white patches on the chest or at the throat, as well as white markings on the toes, are not considered faulty.

SIZE/ WEIGHT

Dogs: 58-64 cm, bitches: 54-60 cm. Overall balance and symmetry are much more important than the mere measurable size.

MOVEMENT

Typical gait when working is not exhausting gallop in the field. When gallopping movement should be an animated, light-footed trot, elegant and far reaching. Viewing from front and back legs should have a free and easy movement without swinging sideways or crossing each other. with much drive and corresponding reach. The body’s movement shoud be firm. The topline remains level.

FAULTS

All of the differences that impact body composition or constitution, which adversly affect harmonic movement and work with the dog. Significant fault is extremely rough or fine figure, The body length slightly exceeds the height at the withers (disorders including short body, but too high withers). Head’s devaitions are of particular importance: disproportionate, too wide or narrow skull, strongly domed, poined or concave head, strongly defined stop, short muzzle.
Signficant faults are pendalous or dripping flews, loosely fitting skin on head, approaching eyes, expressionless or malicious look. Ears set on too high or too short. Teeth closed irregularly, under-, or overshot, wry shot , outward teeth, Concave withers, humped, loose back, long, poorly muscled loin, narrow and croup cut off short, sloping sharply, loose shoulders, chest not deep enough or too deep with ribs slightly arched, underline strongly or barely tucked up. Limb disorders. Loose, opened paws. Tail set on too high or held too high. Thin coat, lacking undercoat. Long, soft, silky, shaggy, crinkle or woolly coat. Lacking brushes on the legs. Dark brown, pale yellow and red colours are undesirable. Darker line ont he back (kingline) is not a significant fault. White spot or patches on chest or near tail are fault if it is bigger than 5 cm.

ELIMINATING FAULTS

Any difference from the foregoing points should be considered a fault. Multicoloured, not uniformly coloured, spotted hair, white chest, paws. Atypical head, pointed muzzle, narrow skull like greyhounds have or strong like sparrows’. Light yellow, grey or differently coloured eyes. Lacking pigmentation either on the skin or on the lips and eyerims. Undershot mouth or overshot if it is more than 2 mm. Wry mouth. Not tightly fitting lips. Pendalous flews. Pale yellow colour or dark brown. Shyness, any type of weeknesses in temperament, strong deviation from the sexual characteristics. Faulty movement.