48 Fun Facts About Vizsla

Vizslas stick so close to their owners that fans have nicknamed the breed after which product?

Velcro. As a hunter bred to work closely with people, the Vizsla bonds tightly, hates being left alone and, its American breed club warns, wants to be on your lap or beside you on the sofa.

The Vizsla has ranked among the top three bomb-sniffing breeds used by which US agency?

The TSA. Its screeners prize the Vizsla's nose, the same superb scenting ability that made the breed a nobleman's bird dog in the first place.

In 2000 a Vizsla named Chartay became the first dog of any breed to earn what?

Five AKC championship titles. It took Chartay seven years, moving from the show ring to field trials and beyond, and she earned the last of them in agility at the age of nine.

What colour should a Vizsla's nose be?

Reddish, blending with the coat. The Vizsla is 'self-coloured', so eyes, nails and nose all match its golden rust, and even a partly black nose gets a dog disqualified from the AKC show ring.

What does the AKC breed standard say must never be penalised in a show-ring Vizsla?

Scars from hunting. The standard calls them 'honorable scars' that mark a real working dog, and it gives the same protection to a weathered coat and to sinewy, field-hard muscle.

Why is the Vizsla unsuited to being kept outdoors?

It has no undercoat. With only a thin single coat the Vizsla feels the cold more than most breeds, so its clubs class it as an indoor dog and any outdoor kennel has to be well insulated.

Which common canine drawback do owners say the Vizsla barely has?

A doggy smell. The short coat stays so clean that the AKC and the breed's American club ask for only an occasional bath, chiefly when the dog has rolled in something smelly.

In Hungarian, the 'zs' in Vizsla is pronounced like the 's' in which English word?

Measure. Hungarian writes that buzzing sound 'zs', the same pair of letters that opens Zsa Zsa Gabor's name, so 'VEEZ-la' and 'VEES-la' follow the English spelling and not the Hungarian.

Search-and-rescue Vizslas were among the dog teams that worked at which disaster site?

Ground Zero after 9/11. A nose bred to find birds in thick cover also finds people, and Vizslas were among the canine teams sent to search the ruins of the World Trade Center.

How does a Vizsla carry its tail while working?

Horizontal to the ground. American, British and international standards all ask for it, and in the show ring a tail held upright or curled over the back counts against the dog.

Why are Vizslas' tails traditionally docked?

To prevent injury. The international standard allows a shortened tail only 'to avoid hunting hazards', though one estimate, drawn from dogs of all kinds, is that some 500 would have to be docked to spare a single tail injury.

The international breed standard says a Vizsla must stay on a scent even while doing what, which it 'manifestly enjoys'?

Swimming. The Vizsla was bred to work 'in field, forest and water', retrieving shot waterfowl as well as finding upland birds, and most take to a lake or stream with gusto.

Since a 2007 ban in England and Wales, which Vizsla puppies may still have their tails docked?

Future working dogs. A vet must certify the pup within five days of birth, and because of that exemption the Kennel Club's Vizsla standard still describes the tail both docked and undocked.

The Vizsla's ancestors are believed to have reached Hungary over a thousand years ago with which horse-riding people?

The Magyars. Their cavalry lived by speed, so the warriors bred the same pace and stamina into their dogs as into their horses, and the nimble red hunters that kept up became the Vizsla.

What does its American breed club warn a harshly trained Vizsla may do?

Shut down. The club says a Vizsla handled harshly may resist or even refuse to work, and the international standard agrees that the breed 'cannot bear rough treatment', so trainers keep things calm, positive and consistent.

In 2004 Hungary's parliament declared the Vizsla and eight other Hungarian dog breeds to be what?

National treasures. Passed on the eve of joining the European Union, the resolution also covers native cattle, horses and even carp, and commits the state to supporting their breeding.

Alongside several cancers, which inherited condition is a main target of health research funded by Vizsla breed clubs?

Epilepsy. The American club's welfare foundation pools money with other breed clubs to fund studies of it, and careful breeders screen their dogs for the condition before mating them.

What advantage in the hunting field is the Vizsla's even golden-rust colouring said to give it?

Camouflage in dry grass. The colour disappears against the steppe and ripening grain of its homeland, useful for a dog bred to creep close without alarming wary game birds.

When one Vizsla points, what must a second dog do to 'honor' it?

Stop and hold still. A dog that pushes past to claim the find has 'stolen the point', which fails it in AKC hunting tests, and at the top level the honoring dog must stay frozen until the bird is shot and brought in.

At the 2010 show where the Vizsla Yogi won Best in Show, what interrupted the judging of his group?

A streaker. The interruption held up the judging but not Yogi, who won the group and, later the same day, became the first Vizsla to take the show's top award.

Breed books, club certificates and AKC articles all pair the Vizsla's name with which other V-word?

Versatile. Where British gundogs each learned one job, continental hunters wanted a single dog to do them all, and the American club still awards a Versatility Certificate for passing three different kinds of test.

In the 1800s the Vizsla lost ground at home to fashionable imported pointers from England and which other country?

Germany. English Pointers and German Shorthaired Pointers so crowded out the old golden hunting dog that enthusiasts later had to search the whole country for animals of the true type.

Roughly how many true-type Vizslas were left in Hungary when the breed nearly died out in the late 1800s?

About 12. A search of the country and a poll of its sportsmen turned up only about a dozen dogs of the true type, and from that tiny stock breeders rebuilt the Vizsla.

The first Vizsla to reach America, in 1950, arrived with help from an employee of which body?

State Department. A staffer posted in Rome heard of Sari, a Vizsla a refugee had smuggled out of Hungary, and had her and her two puppies flown to a dog-loving friend in Kansas City.

Vizslas are prized as jogging partners, but owners are told to avoid long runs until the dog has done what?

Finished growing. The AKC advises waiting until a Vizsla matures at about 18 to 24 months, and the British breed club warns that a pup feels no strain on bones that are still hardening.

In which American Kennel Club group does the Vizsla compete?

Sporting Group. American owners won the breed its place there in 1960 after years spent piecing together pedigrees, almost none of which had survived the war.

Which German gundog, nicknamed the 'Grey Ghost', was like the Vizsla once jealously guarded by its country's aristocracy?

Weimaraner. Both began as noblemen's dogs that lived in the house when other hunting dogs were kennelled in packs, and the Weimaraner stayed a secret of the German aristocracy until exports to America began in the 1920s.

Which American coonhound has a sleek, solid-coloured coat much like the Vizsla's?

Redbone Coonhound. American settlers bred it to tree raccoons, then spent years selecting for a flashy, nearly solid red coat, which is why it can pass for a Vizsla at a glance.

In 2010 a Vizsla called Yogi became the first of his breed to win Best in Show at which dog show?

Crufts. By then Yogi's show record had made him so popular at stud that he had fathered more than 500 puppies, prompting warnings that one dog's genes were spreading too widely through the breed.

Not Hungary but which far-off country bred Yogi, the Vizsla who won a famous Best in Show in 2010?

Australia. Bred in Sydney by Naomi Cragg, Yogi was exported in 2004 and was twice named his new home's top show dog of all breeds.

Comedian Drew Lynch, whose Vizsla service dog Stella co-starred in his videos, built his early act around which condition?

A stutter. It dates from a softball accident that injured his throat and head, and fans noticed that when he talked to Stella he stuttered far less.

Which NBA star and mental-health advocate has a Vizsla named Vestry with her own Instagram following?

Kevin Love. Vestry is the first dog he has had as an adult, and he says she 'loves basketball', playing keep-away with the ball like a team-mate who will not pass.

Frakk, a Vizsla in a 1972 Hungarian cartoon, feuds with which animals?

Two house cats. Uncle Károly takes in the dog hoping he will bring his wife's spoilt pair, Lukrécia and Szerénke, to heel, which is how Frakk earns the series its title, 'the terror of the cats'.

Kubrick, a Vizsla honoured in a 2011 tribute book, spent his life on the sets of an owner who worked as what?

A fashion photographer. Sean Ellis said the dog calmed his shoots, posing with the likes of Stella McCartney, and he made the book Kubrick the Dog to work through his grief after the Vizsla died of cancer.

Which larger breed with a similar red-gold coat is the Vizsla often mistaken for?

Rhodesian Ridgeback. It was bred in southern Africa to track lions and hold them at bay, so it is much the heavier dog, and a stripe of backward-growing hair along its spine settles any doubt.

Which breed was crossed with the Vizsla to create its rough-coated cousin?

German Wirehaired Pointer. The crosses began in the 1930s, and breeders set out to keep the Vizsla's golden-rust colour, which is why the new dog looks like its smooth cousin in a rougher jacket.

In the early 1920s, what did Hungarian enthusiasts start doing that turned the old hunting dog into the modern Vizsla?

Keeping a stud book. A breeders' association formed for the purpose recorded which animals counted as true to type, a written standard followed, and the world canine federation recognised the breed in the 1930s.

Away from the hunting field, Vizslas have had continuing success as which other kind of working dog?

Guide dogs. The breed standard prizes a Vizsla's 'willingness to keep contact with his master', the attentiveness guide-dog schools need, whereas its own club tells anyone wanting a guard dog not to buy one.

Which facial features set the Wirehaired Vizsla apart from its smooth-coated cousin?

A beard and bushy eyebrows. They are no ornament: the harsh, wiry coat they belong to protects the dog from thorns and wet, rough cover as it pushes through to make a retrieve.

How do kennel clubs classify the Wirehaired Vizsla in relation to the smooth Vizsla?

As a separate breed. Each has its own international standard, and in America the wirehaired dog had to start from scratch, joining the AKC's entry-level register only in 2008, decades after its smooth cousin was recognised.

Into which three classes are gundogs traditionally divided?

Retrievers, flushing dogs and pointers. Each takes one stage of a shoot, finding the birds, putting them up or fetching what falls, and where British breeds specialise in one, continental dogs like the Vizsla are asked to do the lot.

What does the HPR label for continental gundog breeds stand for?

Hunt, point and retrieve. In Britain the label marks out imported all-rounders such as the Vizsla, which do alone the jobs that British breeds divide among specialists.

Before firearms, hunters used pointing and setting dogs to pin birds down for capture with what?

A thrown net. The dog crouched, or 'set', beside the hidden covey while the net was cast over birds and dog together; only when guns arrived were such dogs taught the upright stance seen today.

Thousand-year-old stone etchings show the Vizsla's ancestor hunting beside its master and which bird of prey?

A falcon. Hunting to the hawk long before the gun is why the golden Vizsla is still classed among the falconry breeds, and falconers were among those who shaped its wirehaired cousin in the 1930s.

Which of these do America's two Vizsla breed standards want left on the dog because it serves a purpose?

The whiskers. The AKC calls them functional and frowns on trimming, the United Kennel Club forbids it outright, and yet both standards want the dewclaws taken off.

To test what a docked tail costs a dog, University of Victoria biologists filmed hundreds of off-leash dogs meeting what?

A robot dog. The life-size model's tail came long or short, wagging or still: dogs changed their approach when the long tail wagged, but a short tail's wag made no difference, a sign that docking muffles a dog's signals.

Drew Lynch's Vizsla first became famous on which TV show?

America's Got Talent. Lynch's 2015 quarter-final set was all jokes about Stella; he finished the season as runner-up, and she went on to co-star in his YouTube series Dog Vlog, answering him back in speech bubbles.

Which mop-coated flock guardian is, like the Vizsla, one of Hungary's own breeds?

Komondor. Its heavy white cords are working kit, not decoration: they shield the dog from weather and wolves' teeth and let it blend in among the sheep it guards.