Vizsla
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48 free Vizsla trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Vizsla is the russet-gold pointer that Hungarian nobles hunted with in the fourteenth century, that nearly vanished twice, and that now sleeps under the covers in family beds on several continents. A velcro dog with no undercoat and almost no doggy smell, it hunts, points and retrieves on land and in water and was first written about in a chronicle ordered by King Louis I in 1357. These 48 questions cover the breed's history from the Illustrated Vienna Chronicle through the Turkish occupation, the nineteenth-century flood of English and German pointers, the post-World War II search that found barely a dozen true dogs, the arrival in America and AKC recognition as breed number 115 in November 1960. They also take in the standard: the nose that matches the coat, the disqualifying colours, the tail docked to two-thirds, the sizes and the 13.5-year life expectancy, plus the breeds it is mistaken for and the breeds it helped create. Further questions cover the Wirehaired Vizsla born in the 1930s from two bitches called Zsuzsi and Csibi, the pointing-dog family, the docking debate, Crufts 2010, Drew Lynch's Stella and Kevin Love's Vestry. The easy tier asks which country the breed comes from; the expert tier wants the German Wirehaired sire and the name of the first Wirehaired Vizsla shown. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation. Play it solo or print it for a gundog-club night.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Vizslas stick so close to their owners that fans have nicknamed the breed after which product?
Velcro
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.
Q 02The Vizsla has ranked among the top three bomb-sniffing breeds used by which US agency?
The TSA
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.
Q 03In 2000 a Vizsla named Chartay became the first dog of any breed to earn what?
Five AKC championship titles
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.
Q 04What colour should a Vizsla's nose be?
Reddish, blending with the coat
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.
Q 05What does the AKC breed standard say must never be penalised in a show-ring Vizsla?
Scars from hunting
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.
Q 06Why is the Vizsla unsuited to being kept outdoors?
It has no undercoat
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.
Q 07Which common canine drawback do owners say the Vizsla barely has?
A doggy smell
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.
Q 08In Hungarian, the 'zs' in Vizsla is pronounced like the 's' in which English word?
Measure
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.
Q 09Search-and-rescue Vizslas were among the dog teams that worked at which disaster site?
Ground Zero after 9/11
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.
Q 10How does a Vizsla carry its tail while working?
Horizontal to the ground
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.
Q 11Why are Vizslas' tails traditionally docked?
To prevent injury
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.
Q 12The international breed standard says a Vizsla must stay on a scent even while doing what, which it 'manifestly enjoys'?
Swimming
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.
Q 13Since a 2007 ban in England and Wales, which Vizsla puppies may still have their tails docked?
Future working dogs
Q 21Breed books, club certificates and AKC articles all pair the Vizsla's name with which other V-word?
Versatile
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.
Q 22In the 1800s the Vizsla lost ground at home to fashionable imported pointers from England and which other country?
Germany
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.
Q 23Roughly how many true-type Vizslas were left in Hungary when the breed nearly died out in the late 1800s?
About 12
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.
Q 14The Vizsla's ancestors are believed to have reached Hungary over a thousand years ago with which horse-riding people?
The Magyars
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.
Q 15What does its American breed club warn a harshly trained Vizsla may do?
Shut down
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.
Q 16In 2004 Hungary's parliament declared the Vizsla and eight other Hungarian dog breeds to be what?
National treasures
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.
Q 17Alongside several cancers, which inherited condition is a main target of health research funded by Vizsla breed clubs?
Epilepsy
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.
Q 18What advantage in the hunting field is the Vizsla's even golden-rust colouring said to give it?
Camouflage in dry grass
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.
Q 19When one Vizsla points, what must a second dog do to 'honor' it?
Stop and hold still
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.
Q 20At the 2010 show where the Vizsla Yogi won Best in Show, what interrupted the judging of his group?
A streaker
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.
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.
Q 24The first Vizsla to reach America, in 1950, arrived with help from an employee of which body?
State Department
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.
Q 25Vizslas are prized as jogging partners, but owners are told to avoid long runs until the dog has done what?
Finished growing
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.
Q 26In which American Kennel Club group does the Vizsla compete?
Sporting Group
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.
Q 27Which German gundog, nicknamed the 'Grey Ghost', was like the Vizsla once jealously guarded by its country's aristocracy?
Weimaraner
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.
Q 28Which American coonhound has a sleek, solid-coloured coat much like the Vizsla's?
Redbone Coonhound
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.
Q 29In 2010 a Vizsla called Yogi became the first of his breed to win Best in Show at which dog show?
Crufts
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.
Q 30Not Hungary but which far-off country bred Yogi, the Vizsla who won a famous Best in Show in 2010?
Australia
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.