When the breed moves out of the AKC’s FSS into the Miscellaneous Class and eventually advances into full recognition, its name will appear in show catalogs as the Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer.

Others, however, may identify the breed differently because it’s been known by so many different names in the last sixty years, including the Slovak Wirehaired Pointer, the Slovak Pointing Griffon, the Slovak Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, the Slovak Wirehaired Pointing Dog, the Slovakian Rough Haired Pointer, and between the 1950s and 1975, as the wire-haired Weimaraner. If one speaks Slovakian, the breed is the Slovenský Hrubosrstý Stavač. Indeed, Slovaks who developed the breed once asked the Weimaraner Club of Germany to recognize the breed as the “Rough-haired Weimaraner.” They were denied. The German Weimaraner Club maintained that it wasn’t a Weimaraner of any kind, and that the breed couldn’t be called a “fill-in-the-blank” Weimaraner.

Another point of view is that the translation of the Weimaraner standard into Slovakian was in error, and that was why the breed was registered as a Rough Haired Weimaraner. Not until 1975,  some say, was the error noticed by the German Weimaraner Club which still didn’t approve. Until this time, breedings between rough and smooth coated dogs had been done with the approval of  breed wardens. When approval wasn’t granted, such breedings quickly stopped.

Long story short, the Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer became an FCI registered breed in 1983. It was recognized by the United Kennel Club in 2006, and in 2018, it became listed as an AKC FSS breed.

How a Weimaraner (likely the oldest German pointing breed) become part of the conversation about the breed at all was because the Weimaraner was one of the Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer’s foundation breeds, along with the German Wirehaired Pointer and Cesky Fousek (also known as the Bohemian Wirehaired Pointing Griffon). There are those who believe that the Pudelpointer was part of the breed development, as well.

The Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer was developed in the 1950s in Slovakia by Koloman Slimák who wanted to create the most versatile dog out of the most versatile breeds. Slimák’s new breed had to be able to hunt well in water, on land, and in forested areas, and it had to be able to point and retrieve all species of game. Because of rough Slovakian winters, the dog also had to be hardy.  Only the soundest dogs in temperament and ability were part of the breeding program, and in the end, Slimák had created a classic continental type Braque breed.

Some people seeing these dogs think they look like a Wirehaired Weimaraner, but owners shrug and say that a Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer’s personality is nothing like a Weimaraner’s.  Some Slovakian Wirehaired Pointers look more like German Wirehaired Pointers, and these dogs are known as ‘roans.’

There is a dog called a “Stockhaarig,” that has a short coat like a Weimaraner, but with a coarser texture like the dog once called a rough coated Weimaraner. Some would say it has an in-between coat with both shorthair and longhair characteristics.  There are those who insist that a Stockhaarig is a Weimaraner with mixed genes, not a purebred Weimaraner, but we came across sources that suggest otherwise. That topic is a post for another day.

What we’ve not been able to ascertain is where the so-called, “long coated Weimaraner” fits into this topic. Such a coat is a disqualification in the AKC breed standard, but the Longhaired Weimaraner is accepted by the FCI, and the Australian Kennel Club.  Genetically, the longhair gene is recessive and can “pop up” in a litter between two shorthaired Weims. Again, a post for another day.

Image of Slovakian Wirehaired Pointer youngster found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information