# Vizslas



## gusto (Oct 8, 2003)

Can any one help me out on this dog breed? I know
nothing about Vizslas, but my wife met one last week
and wants one for pheasant/grouse hunting. I currently 
have a 2 year old lab and an 8 year old boy. Are they 
good with kids and other dogs? Easy to housebreak?
I know that they are not hardy when it comes to cold 
weather, but how are they in the field?


----------



## WI Scooter (Oct 14, 2008)

I currently own a 6 year old vizsla. He has been a great hunter, awesome drive, loves birds more than anything and good with kids. This dog is very strong willed and it did take some time to "break" him. The e-collar was a must, but now we understand each other and he is a very controlled dog.

On the down side, vizslas in general are inconsistent retrievers in the breed. I have found this with my dog. While he will chase a dummy in the yard, once in the field, after he has pointed the bird, he would rather find the next one. We have this case quite a bit with grouse and woodcock.

Overall, a great dog if you can get by the retrieving aspect. Don't get me wrong, there are good vizsla retrievers; it is just not a predominant trait in this breed. With all of this, I did pick up a GSP for my next dog.


----------



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

From what I've read they are a soft breed with a wide variation of skill level, and seem to have more than their share of gunshy issues.

Personally that would rule them out for me.

I'm sure there are many good ones but you will find virtaully all well bred GSP's are good dogs


----------



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

IMO (and I've often stated I am not a dog breeder) "well bred" means breeding to a type for the particular bloodline within the breed not the breed as a whole.

While as you correctly observed GSP's have a variation in types based on the line you can easily pick a line ( if you dont buy from a back yard dealer) that will meet your expectations.

My comments above about the visla are not based on personal experience but on comments I have read from trainers I respect and from owners obsrvations on the several bird dog training web sites I frenquent on a regular basis.

My impression has been they typically are soft dogs, now my personal experience and bias on training dogs comes into play.

I always personally have more trouble training soft dogs and training mistake is magnified with a soft dog. I'm better with the softies now then I was as a young man but still find it a lot more fun to train a mentally tougher breed of dog.

If we rule out the retreivers, I am certain the two mentally toughest pointing dog breeds are first english pointers second German shorthaired pointers.

Now by tough I don't mean they need any kind of abuse to train, what I mean is if you make a training mistake the dog is more likely to forgive and forget.

That trait and the fact that they are very well line "typed" within their breeds makes them "well bred" and easy to pick a high % chance of getting a good one that matches your expectations for range, biddability speed ect.

Does that make sense?

Two more things,

Within any breed you can get a soft dog its not the end of the world but you will have to train differently to avoid ruining that dog, there are no guarantees.

this is not a slam on Visla's I always tell people to get the dog they want not the dog I want. But if they ask I will tell them what I would do without candy coating it.


----------



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I reread your list I've been trianing shorthairs since 1970 and have usually owned 6-10 personal shorthairs at anyone time for the last maybe 30 years. I curently own 5 GSP's out of Rawhide clown ( field trial line out of Nebraska medium size very fast big ranging ), a DK (true german standard german line shorthair out of Maine, big slow, close hunting fur sharp), two English pointers out of converdog field trial lines ( fast nice biddable easy to train dogs) a boykin spaniel ( soft sulky very smart but a little booger), a pit bull ( what a tank), a husky shepard cross.

And temporairily a rescue Doberman some AHOLE dumped on my land I'm trying to put some training on and find a home for. So you can see I spend a lot of time training and fooling with dogs.

Getting back to your comments about GSP's

1)I've never seen one that was afraid of water, thats an example of a training mistake not the dog. I've never had one that needed to be FF either, teaching hold , here and drop is all thats needed.

I do that watching the news with my dogs.

2)Noise issues are also a training mistake IMO.

3)Althuough I dont see any show bred dogs there are plenty of fine Dual show /field dog lines to be had and with the internet they are easy to find.

Your other observations are certainly true but thats exactly what Lines within a breed are for, and why people should not blindly just go buy a dog breed without looking at the line it comes from


----------



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

> but it sounds to me like your saying anyone crossing dogs of different lines even if a clear specific goal from the breeding is planned... is basicly a crap shoot on what your going to get in any breed.


Yes sir that is exactly correct... you cannot predict what you will get until the line begins to breed to type that take selective multiple breedings.

This is also the reason anyone that loves their dog and uses that as the reason to breed it is kidding themselves and will almost never get a similar dog unless they breed to another closely line bred dog of that line.

This all takes time money and know how. If you like a particular dog you have rather than breeding it you should go back to the original breeder and have them give you a pup from that same line.



> Is there a central database or discription for knowing and understanding of all the different lines of a given breed?
> Otherwise what would be the reason of keeping seperated lines within the same breed if the public couldn't know what to expect from each line to find the best one for them? IMO


No not really.. but if you have a type of dog you want in mind and can describe it darn near all the top breeders can tell you whose dogs are likely to give you what you are asking for. Responsible breeders do not want to sell a pup to someone they know is a poor match, Its bad for them and bad for you.

One thing the internet has done is make this type of search very easy if you go to the many bird dog site and tell the people on it what your looking for in a dog you will get pointed in the right direction.

Back yard breeders are for the most part clueless , they can produce excellent dogs but if they do its just luck.


----------



## deerslayer80 (Mar 27, 2007)

I own a vizsla and I've been very happy with her. She's very good with kids and being in the house. She's a lot more laid back/less hyper then my GSP. She's by no means gun shy and I haven't had any retrieving problems with her either. Maybe I got a rare one, but I'm very happy with her in all.

One thing though, there's no way she can keep up with my GSP on a full days hunt. They tend to tire quicker than the GSP's, but you have to put into account that GSP's are freaks of nature when it comes to energy.

Overall I'm very happy with mine. I'm an avid hunter, and by no means a professional dog handler, so I don't have to have the perfect dog. I love to watch mine work and if "we must of the time we do" the prize is bagging a couple birds for her. You just need to take into account that you need to find the right dog for your needs.


----------



## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

Every trainer I have talked to, has said that coming up with a good V is very, very hard. I was just talking about that very thing with Maurice Lindley two nights ago. He is a very good pro and sees very few decent v's.

I would look to another breed. The closer you can get them to pure, imported breeding, the better the V will be.

They're too damn spooky for me and I won't hunt birds with a dog that looks like a redbone coonhound.


----------

