Why Vizslas?

“Life’s too short to hunt over an ugly dog.”  That’s a quip my husband likes to use, but the fact that Vizslas are beautiful is really just a bonus.  We hunt upland game in the western United States, primarily northeastern Oregon and southeastern Idaho.  This is dry, often rugged country.  While Hungarian partridge and various grouse species are the mainstay of what we hunt, chukar and pheasant figure into the picture too.  Chukar country is the most rugged, but huns and grouse can still mean a lot of climbing up and down hills.  This requires a dog with stamina, (one that isn't carrying a lot of mass on a big frame that will burn energy and tire more quickly in the heat).

Hunting with a dog should be a partnership. The idea is to work together.  Before we got our Vizsla we had an English Pointer.  While she had a good nose and knew how to find birds, she was out there to hunt for herself and really didn’t care if we were there or not.  I lost count of how many times that dog ran off in the field (got over a hill where she knew the shock collar wouldn’t reach her) and we couldn’t find her and she spent the night out.  She didn't have much for ‘pet’ qualities either and wasn't a good house dog.. 

Back to our Vizsla.  What a difference!  This dog has an even better nose than our pointer did (which we didn't know was possible), a truly Amazing nose!, and she was very easy to train (so much so that we were quite lax in the formal bird dog training we should have given her).  She is a joy to have in the field.  She listens, she responds, she loves to please.  In the house she is quiet and calm, curls up on her dog bed, plays with the cat and cuddles with us to watch a movie.  An all around super dog.

Note: I have seen a number of Vizsla’s that are large like a Weimeraner (their breed standard ranges from 23-27 inches at the shoulder depending on sex with a maximum 1-inch variation allowed).  Vizsla breed standard (see link at right) is 21-24 inches at the shoulder depending on sex with a maximum 1.5-inch variation allowed.  Red is the smallest Vizsla I’ve seen, though she still makes breed standard at 19.5 inches at the shoulder.  Her powerful compact size makes for great stamina in tough terrain, even in warm weather.