This is our new Hungarian Vizsla puppy named Skylar. The photo above was taken at her checkup at the vet when she was 6 weeks old. We brought her home when she was 8 weeks old, and being true to the breed characteristics, she was already very active and surprisingly smart!

We had to make our pick from the breeder when she was only two days old so we could keep her tail and dew claws. Tail docking has been banned in Europe, but she may be one of the few Vizslas in the US with a complete tail!

Here are some images of her when we were there to rescue her from the procedure.

Skylar and her sisters at 2 days old when we made our pick. That’s Skylar on the left.

Skylar at 2 days old, sleeping in a small box and separated from her litter mates who had their tails docked and dew claws removed that day.

When they did the final weigh-in at the vet before we picked her up, she had grown to be over a pound heavier than any of her other litter mates! We think that since she didn’t have to go through the tail docking recovery like the other puppies, that might have given her a big head start.

Skylar Puppy Videos

Here is some footage below of Skylar at 8 weeks old, playing inside and outside.

And here she is below at 10 weeks old, playing in the snow. We’re keeping her on a long line training lead most of the time while she’s young to keep her out of trouble. It’s been about the best training tool I’ve found yet.

Puppy Teething and Bite Inhibition

I’ve found that Vizslas can be quite a handful as puppies. They have a ton of energy and they’re little biting machines during the teething stage. If you’re thinking about getting one, be sure to do plenty of research on what they’re like as puppies. None of the videos I’ve seen ever discussed much about that, so look for other resources on the web.

vizslaforums.com is a good one.

I taught Skylar bite inhibition by letting her bite, and saying OWW when it was too hard. Then if she was just too rough and frantic, I quit playing. They say you want to let them get a sense of how hard they can bite rather than making them stop altogether. They’re getting bigger and stronger every day, and you don’t want a big strong dog biting you when they haven’t learned this at a younger age.

Puppies will be puppies no matter what you do, so the key is to just stay at it until they outgrow some of the nonsense behavior. You’ll see gradual improvements, but they won’t get everything they need to know overnight!

If you have a Vizsla, please share your experience in the comments below.