Earlier, we shared a wonderful photograph of seven Weimaraners and one other breed, and challenged you to name the eighth dog. A miscommunication over consent to share the picture prevents us from showing it to you again, but if you saw that picture, did you correctly identify the eighth dog as a Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer?

The Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer of Czechoslovakia dates back to the late 1950s following World War II.  The gun dogs – known as “slivaks” to their fans –  was the culmination of an effort to combine the qualities of the Weimaraner, German Wirehaired Pointer and Cesky Fousek into one breed (more specifically, the offspring of crosses between Cesky Fouseks and German Wirehaired Pointers were then mated with Weimaraners). After nearly 60 years, breeders succeeded in producing an excellent all-around hunting dog which is now the national dog of Slovakia. The breed was added by the Kennel Club to its Imported Breed Register as a member of the hunt, point, retrieve gundog sub-group, and in December 2008, a breed standard was approved. The Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer is now recognized by both the United Kingdom’s Kennel Club and the FCI.

By all accounts, this is a marvelous breed with which to live.  These opinionated dogs (read: they like to speak to you and typically have the last word), have tremendous stamina in tracking, pointing, and retrieving in water or on land.

The breed comes in the colors of grey and grey roan as seen in the photo at the right that was provided by the owner and photographer, Rhiannon Chevalier, who also took the thumbnail image. Our thanks to Rhiannon for allowing us to share her pictures!