Polish Hunting Dog

About the Polish Hunting Dog

The Polish Hunting Dog, or Gonczy Polski, comes from the forested hills of southern Poland, where it was used to drive boar, deer and fox through difficult mountain country at a measured pace that a hunter on foot could follow. It is a working breed first and has only recently begun to appear in Britain in any numbers at all.

Height runs to about 50 to 59 cm, with a short, dense coat in black and tan or dark chestnut and tan, tan markings above the eyes and on the legs and chest, and occasionally a little white on the chest. The build is strong without heaviness and the ears are set low and hang flat. Poles value the breed for a calmer, more biddable head than most scent hounds carry, and a stud should show that steadiness as well as good bone and sound feet.

There is no long inherited-disease list published for the breed, which reflects small numbers and limited study rather than any promise of soundness. Ask for hip scores and a current eye certificate, and about ear disease, joints and feet. Because so few are registered here, ask what the Polish parent club recommends, how closely the two pedigrees are related, and what is known about the health and working life of the dog's parents.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.