Viszla vs Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever

[user1494182820]

Hi all, this is my first post

Just wondering if anybody with either of these breeds could give me feedback on living with them as part of a family?

We have always had Dalmatians and I would cheerfully have a dozen more, but DH has expressed a desire to not spend the next 12-15 years under a layer of spiky white hairs! We are at the stage where we will be considering adding another dog in the next 2-3 years. I have, in the past, worked with dogs of all sizes and am used to dealing with big bouncy ones, particularly having had dallies for the past decade or so!

I probably could convince DH to go for another spotty one, but am willing to consider others and have narrowed it down to these two breeds based on our situation and requirements.

We are very active as a family and someone is at home each day, as we mostly work from home. We have a reasonable sized garden/house and never had an issue with 3 Dalmatians in the space we have. There is no limit to the amount of exercise available, as we all love to walk and DH and I take turns to alternate morning and evening walks. We are experienced with both puppies and rescue dogs and will carefully consider either option. The kids are used to (and confident around) large bouncy dogs from our dals, to rotties/ridgebacks/weimaraners owned by family and friends. All of our dogs have been trained using positive reinforcement techniques and this is a method we will continue to use.

The things I love about my dallies and would like to have in future dogs if possible are; their sense of fun and slight air of stupidity, their stamina, their absolute devotion to the family.

Research into each breed is ongoing, particularly with regards to any health issues in the breed, so any experience of that side of things is welcome as well! We will also be looking to spend more time around each breed in the near future!

Sorry for the long post- thanks for taking the time to read!

Weasel that guy dog school also trained weimereiners but they were too crazy to pass the test to become guide dogs!

My Vizsla was the only one available at that time, all of the other dogs were labradors or Australian Shepherd's. I weigh less than six stone though and the Vizsla was the smallest dog they had. Finally enough, we nearly had the same name as well. I really loved her, she was very crazy but a great dog. I studied in Puerto Rico for six months and she would often start to point at birds, as vizslas do! I think some people looked down on her as a terrible guide dog! I don't use guide dogs anymore because I work in developing countries and travel quite a bit. But I am very glad that the one time I did have a guide dog I had the rum cake stealing Vizsla.

She lived with my mom for the last year's of her life and unfortunately she had to be put to sleep because she developed Cushing's disease. My niece was forever confusing me with my guide dog since our names are nearly the same. One day she said to my mom that she was making a pillow for me when I get back from heaven. She meant my guide dog!

The guide dog Viszla sounds amazing .

I'm finding all your experiences really helpful, so thanks everyone for taking the time to reply! still no closer to a decision, I think both breeds would suit us well, but in slightly different ways, if that makes sense? As I said, we're in no rush to make the decision, but I like to have the time to do proper research and make sure we do everything right!

I have a toller. He's 6 now. As others have said, he's very lively, but can be chilled out too.
I am a childminder and he is fab with the children. He prefers them when they are still are walking (not crawling). He knows he stands more of a chance of getting the kids to throw a ball for him on a walk than me. He doesn't care if they only throw it a couple of feet, he always goes back for me.

They are easy to train. Took me about 10 minutes to teach him to ring a bell if he wanted to go outside!!
We had a golden retriever before him and I wanted a retriever, but smaller. He weighs 20kg so I can still pick him up.
I can give you a couple of breeders names if you want to have a chat with a breeder.

I'm really interested in Tollers - does anyone have one as a working dog? I've just been googling Toller Scream, and that would be a deal breaking in a working situation, but I assume it can be trained out? My working lab had a horrible excitement whinge which she 'caught' from a cockerpoo we dogsat, and it took bloody months to stop her doing it...

Re the COI issue, do people ever bring them over from the US/Canada, or are the quarantine issues preventing that?

Have you thought about an Irish Setter? I think it ticks all your boxes and mine sheds minimally and what he does shed is soft and inconspicuous.

My friend has a WHV and it doesn't shed at all. I'm most jealous of it. And so affectionate and loving with the family. DH is desperate for one of her pups.

Re the COI issue, do people ever bring them over from the US/Canada, or are the quarantine issues preventing that?

Breeders can and do import dogs but the issue with completely closed studbooks is that a breed can never be more diverse than it was when the studbooks were closed without outcrossing to another breed.

This is a good article about the issue of low genetic diversity in the Toller.

A few years ago there was a chap in Germany who was doing his own Toller outcross project using Australian Shepherds and Welsh Springers but I don't know how that all panned out.

There are loads of working Tollers so the scream doesn't appear to be a problem. This breeder runs gundog training sessions in the New Forest so maybe ask them how they deal with screamers? Mine only does it very rarely and not when he's focused and working (not as a gundog, although we've done gundog training)

There are quite a few imported dogs in the UK - although Scandinavia, Benelux etc seem to be more popular places to import from rather than US/Canada.

There's a toller near us that backs on to woods. We know when anyone walks in those woods!

... that should read that the toller lives in a house where the garden backs on to woods. Glass of wine has gone down too well

I've got 2 vizlas, and I can't imagine ever having another breed. They are awesome in every respect. The only downside is they are clever, so you need to be really on top of it with the training. It's already been mentioned, but it might be worth trying to meet up with your local Viz Whizz group to meet some. Where do you live? I'm in Leeds, and would happily introduce you to ours.