Secrets of the Hungarian wirehaired vizsla success
As a Hungarian wirehaired vizsla wins the HPR Championship for a second year in a row, David Tomlinson looks at the breed's rise
The Hungarian wirehaired vizsla
HWVs are popular with shooters and are used for hawking, beating and everything in between
Hungarian wirehaired vizsla – a popular shooting dog
Why, then, have they become so popular as shooting dogs? There are a number of answers, some of them obvious. That wiry coat is a definite bonus when working in harsh conditions, so I know a number of vizsla enthusiasts who have switched over. There is no doubt, either, that they are intelligent dogs that learn quickly, while they seem to have a natural instinct to work closer to their handlers than most continental breeds. That might be regarded as a disadvantage if you want a dog to get out and hunt but they can do that, too, if you ask them.
The Hungarian wirehaired vizsla – charming and hardworking
What happened when I became the owner of a Hungarian wire-haired vizsla
Why the Hungarian wirehaired vizsla is becoming more and more popular
I first came across the Hungarian wirehaired vizsla (HWV) more than 16 years ago. The vizslas in question belonged to…
Do Hungarian vizslas make good family pets?
I am thinking of buying a Hungarian vizsla as a hunting/hawking dog and which would also be a family pet,…
Hunt, point and retrieve – truly versatile dogs
Many years ago, when I started out photographing gundogs, I used to attend quite a few spring pointing tests and…
They also seem exceptionally biddable, though I’m sure that there are exceptions. However, I recall watching a five-year-old HWV working in the beating line on a Yorkshire grouse moor. It was an impressive, steady hunter and clearly had been well trained — or so I thought. In fact, it hadn’t received any gundog training at all but had been rescued as a four-year-old and took to shooting so naturally you would have thought that it had been doing it since it was a puppy.
