THE BREED STANDARD FOR THE HUNDARIAN  VIZSLA

F.C.I Standard No57 dated June 1996. Adopted in Australia from 1st January 1998.

BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW:  The ancestors of the Hungarian Vizsla came into the Carpathian basin with tthe nomadic Hungarian tribes.  The written descriptions and grahic illustrations are found in documents fo the 14th century.  From the 18th century, his importance as a hutning dog has been increasing steadily.  As early as the end of the 19th century, competitions for pointing dogs were organised in Hugary, in which Hungarian Vizslas participated with great success.  In those days, other Gundog breeds most likely played an important part in the development of the breed.

The specific modern breeding startd in 1920,  as a result of which, the Hungarian Vizsla received recognition by the FCI in 1936.

GENERAL APPEARANCE:  He is a medium sized, elegan gun dog of noble appearance with a short russet gold coat. His rather light, dry, lean structure embodiest the harmony of  beaty and strength.

CHARACTERISTIICS:  The Hungarian Vizsla is a versatile gun dog tha must be able to work in field, forest and water and have the following typical qualities.  he must have an excellent nose, firmness on the point,  be excellent at  retrieving and have the determination  to remain on the scent even when swimming, which he maifestly enjoys. He copes with difficult terrain as well as extreme weather conditions.  As he is intended to be an efficient hunting dog then gun and game shyness, unwillingness to point and retrieve, as well as a dislike for water are undersirable.  Because of his easy going nature and his adaptability,  he can easily be kept as a companion dog in the house.

TEMPERAMENT:  Lively, friendly, evenly tempered and easily trained.  His outstanding wililngness to keep contact with his master while working is one of his essential qualities.  he cannot bear rough treatmetn and must be neither aggressive or shy.

HEAD AND SKULL:  The head should be dry, noble and well proportioned.  The skull moderatley wide and slightly domed.  A slightly pronounced groove runs from the moderatley developed occiput towards the stoop.  The supercilliary ridges are moderatley developed.  The stoop is moderate.  His nose should be well developed and broad with nostrils as wide as posible.  The colour of the nose harmonises in a dark shading with the coat colour.  The muzzle in blunt, not pointed, with strong jaws that are strongly muscled.  The bridge of the nose is straight.  the lips are tight fitting with no pendulous flews.  The jaws are powerful and the cheeks are strong and well muscled.

EYES: The eyes are slightly oval and of medium size with well fitting eyelids.  He has an intelligent and lively expression. The brown eyes harmonise with the coat colour, as dark as possible is preferred.

EARS: The ears are set on the skull at medium height,  a little backwards.  He has fine leathers, which hang closely to the cheeks and end in a rounded V shape.  The length is about three quaters of the length of the head.

MOUTH:  He has a regular and complete scissor bite with the upper teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws with 42 healthy teeth according to dentition formaula.

NECK: Of medium length, harmonising with the overall appearance.  The nape very muscular and slightly arched.  Tightly fitting skin (no dewlap) at the throat.

FOREQUARTERS: Viewed from the front they should be straight and parallel.  Viewed fromthe side the legs are vertical and placed wll under the body.  Good bones and strongly muscled.  The shoulders are long, sloping and flat with well attached shoulder blades.  Flexible with strong dry muscles.  Well angulated betweent eh shoulder blade and upper arm.  The uppper arm is as long as possible and well muscled.  The elbows fit close to the body, not tied in and turning neither in nor out and are well angulated between the upper arm and forearm.  The forearm is long, straight and sufficiently muscled with strong but not coarse bone.  The pastern joint is short and tight.  The pastern is short and only very slightly sloping.

BODY: The withers are pronunced and muscular.  The back is solid, strong well muscled, taut and straight.  The muscles should hide the vertebral spines.  The loin is short, broad, tight, muscular, straight or slightly arched.  The portion from back to loin is well coupled.  The croup is broad and of sufficent lenth, not to cut off short.  It slopes slightly to the tail and is well muscled.  The chest is deep and broad with a well-developed, well muscled, moderately arched forechest.  The sternum shoudl extednd as far back as possible.  The sternum and the elbow should be at teh same level.  The ribs are moderately arched with the last ribs arried wellback.  The underline is elegant, tight, arching towards teh rear and slightly tucked up.

HINDQUARTERS: Viewed from befing they should be straight and parallel.  Well angulated and with strong bone.  The upper thigh is long and muscular with good angulation between the pelvis and uppper thigh.  The stifle is well angulated.  The lower thigh is long, well muscled and sinewy.  Its length is almost equal to that of the upper thigh.  Good angulation between the lower thigh and the metatarsus.  The hock joint is stong, dry and sinewy and rather well let down.  The metatarsus is vertical, short and dry.

FEET: The forefeet are slightly oval, with well knit, suffiviently arched, strong toes.  The nails are strong and brown in colour.  He has tough, resistant, slate grey pads.  The feet are paralled when standing or moving.  THe hind feet are similar to the forefeet.

TAIL: Set is slightly low, strong at the base, then tapering.  In countries where tail docking is not prohibited by law, the tail may be shortened by one quarter to avoid hunting hazards.  If tail docking is prohibited, the tail reaches down to the hock joint and is carried straight or slightly sabre like.  On the move, it is raised up to the horizontal.  It is well coverd by dense coat.

GAIT/MOVEMENT:  The typical gait is an animated, light footed trot, elegant and far-reaching, with much drive and corresponding reach.  Not exhausting gallop when working in the field.  The back is firm and the topline remains elvel.  Good, upright carriage.  Pacing undersirable.

COAT:  Short and dense, shoudl be coarse and hard at the touch.  On the head and the ear leathers,  it should be thinner, silkier and shorter.  The hair underneath the tail should be slightly, but not noticeable longer.  The coat should cover all of the body, with the underside fo the belly beign a little lighter coated. 

COLOUR: Various shades fo Russett Gold and Dark Sandy Gold.  The ear leathers may be a little darker, otherwise uniform in colour.  Red, brownish or lightend colour is undersirable.  A little white patch on the chest or at the throat, not more than 5cm in diameter as well as white markings on the toes are not considered faulty. The colour of the lips and the eye rims corresponds to the colour of the nose.  The skin is tightly fitting, without folds and well pigmented.

SIZE/WEIGHT:  Height at Withers: Dogs 58-64cm, Bitches 54-60cm

IMPORTANT PROPORTIONS: 

The body length slightly exceeds the height at withers. 

The depth of the brisket is slightly less than half the height at the withers.

The muzzle is slightly shorter than half the length of the head.

It is ineffective to increase the heigh at the withers.  A medium size should be aimed for.  Overall balance and symmetry are much more important than the mere measurable size.

FAULTS: Any departure from the foregoing points should be consedered a fault and the seriouseness with which the fault should be regarded should be in the exact proportion to its degree.

DISQUALIFYING FAULTS: 

•  Distinct deviations from the characteristics of the breed strong deviation from the sexual characteristics.
• A typical head.
• Spotted (butterfly) nose
• Pendulous or dribbling flews
• Under or overshot mouth.  Wry mouth, including all intermeditate forms.
• One or more missing incisors and/or canine and or premoloars 2-4 and/or molars 1-2
• More than two missing PM 1. The M3 are disregarded.  Not visible teeth are assessed as missing ones.  Supernumerary teeth not in line with the others.
• Cleft palate, harelip
• Light yellow eyes. Very loose eyelids.  Extropian.
• Entropion.  Distichiasis (double row fo eyelashes)
• Pronounced dewlap
• Dewclaws
• Very fualty movement
• A typical coat
• Dark brown or pale yellow colour.  Parti-coloured.  Not uniformly coloured.  White chest patch larger than 5cm
• White feet
• Lacking pigmentation whether on the skin or on the lips or eye rims.
• Any type of weakness in temperament
• Deviation of more than 2cm from the previous mentioned heights at the withers
• Male dogs must have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.