(Vlivk it)
At AKC's August meeting it was decided that the Wirehaired Vizsla which has been in the AKC FSS (Foundation Stock Service) since January 2008 & assigned designation to the Sporting group would become eligible to compete in AKC Companion & Performance Events January 1, 2009.
Left & Bottom Photos by Tonni Niessing
Top & Right Photos by Nancy Edmunds
CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!
US Wirehaired Vizla Owners !!!!
AKC Breed recognition has changed greatly since the smooth version of Vizsla gained AKC recognition in 1960 & will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary by the VCA in 2010.
Back then AKC had no Foundation registry & many used the FDSB as a means of "collecting" pedigrees." AKC & FDSB both required three-generation pedigrees to register Vizsla which caused many problems with many imports. Only the Czech registry AND one of the creators of the Wirehaired Vizsla & Kennel Manager of the Selle (Czechoslovakia) Vizsla had five-generation pedigrees that ended up being solid gold.
Some have been mistaken thinking that the FDSB gathered the 500 pedigrees & then gave them to AKC. The FDSB registry which was never the preferred registry for the fledgling USA Vizsla Club, had registered 700 3-generation pedigrees by 1958 & over 1500 pedigrees by 1960. Charles Hunt, the then Magyar Vizsla Club of America (MVCOA) collected & sent pedigrees to AKC and Vizsla fanciers sent their 3-generation pedigrees to AKC with some skirting Hunt. In fact through past correspondence with Hunt & the AKC over half of the 500 3-generation pedigrees were received in the year before official AKC recognition.
Without Charles Hunt working tirelessly through serious illnesses of himself & his wife, Joan, breed recognition & the final push from some rather important AKC figures, the US Vizsla might never have received recognition until the seventies. The MVCOA nearly folded during this time & there is a private letter in the Hunt collection documenting that Mike Kende heard over in Hungary the Magyar Vizsla Club of America had indeed dissolved during the late fifties.
Since then AKC has recognized the precariousness of many of breed clubs desiring AKC recognition and have lowered the number of 3 generation pedigrees needed & started the FSS. They have also anticipated breed needs for activities & for breeds like the Wirehaired Vizsla. This is a valuable boost for later ....into the more premier competition of conformation by giving fanciers public "advertising" & helping them to get official AKC breed acceptance for all AKC events as soon as possible.
The VCA is already respected with their initiatives of health programs (OFA) & DNA. The Vizsla is the only Sporting breed that requires its national field competitors to minimally adhere to the breed Standard. Rightfully proud we are of Dr Osborn, who helped start the fledgling OFA & who also is responsible for importing 40 Vizslas to the US, nineteen of them from Czechoslovakia with five-generation pedigrees.
The Wirehaired Vizsla Club of America is cognizant of improving health techniques & is using Penn Hip in addition to OFA as hip health database. PH is the more scientific art form of hip xrays. We predict that the WHV national club will quickly establish themselves in their new peer group with great class & dedication to their crafted breed by following other canine footsteps in health leadership but using more modern technology to serve their founding database fanciers.
The Wirehaired Vizsla Club of America is also to be commended on its dedication to craft of origination (hunting) by participating in USA NAVHDA events. NAVHDA & US Field Trialing are based on "history". Each registry has its birth in the purpose of the times in which the registry was originally created. US Field Trialing in one registry is based on horseback quail-plantation styled hunting and in the other registry, the blue-collar AKC FTer is based on the midwest's gentleman hunter's foot handling with pheasants as originally the bird of choice. (per AKC Rep) Used to be it was commonplace to plant pheasants on the backcourse. The change to quail in AKC Field Trials really began in 1966 when the horse was approved to handle from. Then rising bird costs helped to pressure the pheasant out of favor. Previous to 1966 only Paul Sabo handled in competition from horseback. The advent of the horse has led to the AKC Vizsla today being fully competitive with its AKC cousins in field trials. No longer is it unusual to brag about GSP Field Trial wins.
USA NAVHDA field trials are also based on history, in this case European Field Trial history. European historical field trials resemble US field trials in that they are a field competition. Competition ideals are different. We believe that the twenty years of NAVHDA competition for the WHV will serve them well & expect WHV fanciers once the majority becomes accostumed to several generations of horseback handled FT WHV's will be as fully competitive with the smooth Vizsla, maybe sooner, given the WHV breed fancier temperament like the WHV breed, who can not spell the word "can't" or "shouldn't".
Many claim the WHV got its start during the thirties/forties but there is documentation in the Hunt Collection that I have had no time to bring out that clearly states the WHV existed in the late eighteen hundreds. Others state the WHV happened because of falconers. By the 1920's falconry was becoming a haunted & more sparse profession which in the end established better controls over the fate of the breed as Czeckoslovakia distinctly fared better than Hungary, Bulgaria, Romanian, Slovenia & Yugoslavia. Ironically the Czechs have made claims in the past to the origination of the smooth Vizsla breed & that theory is supported by the Bela Hadik historical rendition & to some extent Mihalyi Kende's.
It is rather ironic it was the Czechs, who also created the twentieth century WHV who got a second chance to be possibly the smooth Vizsla breed saviors also (their registry of 5-generation pedigrees was preserved) partly because of the mountainous terrain that nurtured a smooth breed's birth & then prevented death of that... noble breed hundreds of years later as well as the WHV. The Hungarians seriously disagree over that historical assessment of Czech smooth breed origination & the issue has been hotly contested for centuries. (documented in the Hunt Collection from Mihalyi Kende papers) (EDITOR's NOTE: Personally I think both renditions are "correct" & will establish that possibility to consider for the reader at a later date.)
It is of considerable historical interest that two of the get (Csaba Vizslas) of the two smooth Vizsla bitches bred to the same GWP male during the thirties also figure prominently in more than one of the pedigrees of smooth Vizslas imported from Czeckoslovakia, Look for the foundation for a historical database of my collected historical forties/fifties pedigrees very soon in the "Special Pedigree Collection" in The Vizsmithsonian. Prepare yourself.......for incest.
Also on the AKC Escalator is the Red & White Setter who can now participate in all AKC events. This is indeed quite a fascinating breed & possibly the forerunner of today's Irish & English Setters, Laverack & Llewellyn "style". The R/W Setter is a glorious creature & AKC Sporting eventers look forward to dualing with them in the future.
We leave all to their ruminations about the Wirehaired Vizsla & its AKC future. But we don the dawning crowned breed with the same blessing, that ended up successfully today that Paul Sabo charged to Vizsla field fanciers with just before the smooth Vizsla gained its AKC recognition. Hopefully today's Wirehaired fancier is more mature than yesterday's smooth Vizsla fanciers & understand sooner that a part of being inside the American Kennel Club must be about successful all-breed competition in another's turf by "improving" with selective tested breeding with continually evolving fanciers who hold value in integrity, education, camaraderie & sportsmanship. Some smooth Vizsla old-timers got very angry at Sabo for what he said, which was unfortunate since many who should have been listening to what Sabo said at later dates had turned him off. Take Sabo's words as you may but the his timely spoken words back then still carry that same intensity & value for all of our futures.
THE VIZSLA
by Paul Sabo
(appeared in VIZSLA NEWS, Sept 1979, mimeograph copy)
I make no claim to knowledge of bench shows or desire to compare the Vizsla with the “big going” Amateur or Open All Age dogs running in major circuit field trials. Since it is claimed for the Vizsla that he is a superior gun dog, he will have to show his wares in competition with all pointing breeds in Gun Dog stakes on continuous courses.
On native game birds, the Vizsla should be able to go an hour, handled from horseback before he will be accepted by the rank and the American upland bird hunter. This applies equally to all the European pointing breeds.
I repeat, until the Vizsla can successfully compete with the contemporary Pointers and Setters as shooting dogs on equal terms, he will be just a fad or something different in the realm of bird dogs. In my opinion, this pretty well sums up the story of all European pointing breeds as bird dogs
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We add an old story about the Wirehaired Vizsla
that is from the Hunt Collection. It has appeared
in VIZSLA NEWS more than once. dlb
WIRECOAT HISTORY- BASLER
VIZSLA NEWS Aug 78
I am pleased to advise that after 8 years of deliberation, the Canadian Kennel Club has approved the recognition of the Vizsla WireHair as a recognized breed in Canada, making it the 13th breed of pointers accepted by this registry. As you probably know, I have been a breeder of the Vizsla for the last 15 years, so as two dogs in my kennel are Wire Hairs, that automatically makes the other 9 and this spring’s 10 puppies Smooth Coats. I would say this will now pose a problem to your organization, whether to accept the fact that there are two kinds of Vizslas and keep the name “THE VIZSLA NEWS” or to change the name to something like “The Vizsla (Smooth Coat) News,”
The above may sound rather unkind to you, but as a matter of
fact, I took the matter up with the VCOA 8 years ago, but
they were not interested in any way.
I have had Vizslas for 15 years, have raised over 200 puppies, have received permanent registration of my kennel name “GAMEFINDER” because of the number of champions that came from my breeding, so I can claim to know as much about the breed as most of your readers and I say that the Wire Coats are Vizslas, through and through, same good temperament, same eagerness to hunt, same good nose, same intelligence, same affection for their owners-really the only difference is the coat, which enables them to stand a bit more when the low temperatures come along. They are not cold water dogs, they have no oily under-coat. This is understandable, when you learn that the 1st developer of the breed was Mr Gresnarik, better known in the US as Selle Kennels and his co-worker was Koloman Slimak, also better known as the Povazia Kennels. Both of these men were long time Smooth Coat breeders and when they worked to develop the Wire Coat, they knew exactly what they wanted to retain the fine Vizsla qualities that brought the Smooth Coat from a late start to about half-way up the list in AKC registration and there is no reason whatsoever that the Wire Coat will not prove just as popular, particularly in the mountain areas where low
temperatures start early in the fall.
Wesley Basler
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(This page was last updated 011409 & will not be further updated until closer to the official unveiling of this website in latter January when other articles about the Wirehaired Vizsla will become available. If you think you have a worthy Wire article please contact vizwizdlb@yahoo.com)
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