Polish Hunting Dog Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Polish Hunting Dog probably dates back to the 11^th century when a Polish chronicler wrote about gun dogs and hunting with hounds. It is also known that in 1420 hunting with hounds was so extensive that King Wladislaus II Jagiello forbade hare hunting or cropland.

But it was only in the 1600s that someone described them in a written form. It was Count Jan Ostroróg, who wrote a book about hunting called Myślistwo z ogary (Hunting with Hounds), and this was the earliest material about hunting and breeding Polish Hounds. Being a member of the Polish nobility, Ostroróg was familiar with both hunting and hounds. Later, an accurate description of Polish hounds was made in the 1900s by a Russian author, S.F. Dawidow. At that time working with these types of dogs was a privilege that only the upper class had. Dawidow mentioned two kinds of hounds, the Ogar (later called the Lithuanian Ogar) and a small hound that was frequently found. Both types had a mainly black coat with reddish-brown and white patches. In the same year another Russian author, wrote about three types of hounds, a large, median, and a small-sized. The medium-sized dog, in which we recognize the Gończy Polski (the Polish hunting dog). 

However, according to experts, the breed can be traced back to various Hounds, Pointer, and Mastiff breeds. In 1907, F.B. Laska wrote that Polish hounds are descendants of the Hound of the Tatars (also known as the Kostroma Hound or Russian Hound), a type of dog which was introduced by the Tatars to the European parts in the Middle Ages. On the other side, some historians disagree and believe that the St. Hubert Hound (thought to be the ancestor of the Bloodhound) was involved in the development of the Polish hounds. It is also suggested that in the Middle ages, Bloodhounds were exported to Poland, where they were crossbred with the local hounds, though there is no concrete evidence to prove any of these suggestions.

Back then hunting was one of the favorite pastimes and the Polish Hunting Dog derives many complimentary reviews in Poland’s book for hunters. The territory of the country also favored the hunters’ situation as it was completely covered with dense forests. Hunting with Polish hounds flourished after World War I, especially in eastern Poland and the southern mountains but Word War II had a terrible effect on this breed as well as on any other ones. After the war was finally over, Polish breeders initiated attempts to re-build the number of the breed and set its standard. During the 1950s, Józef Pawuślwicz, the famous Polish dog expert made a visible contribution in the reaction of the former importance of the Polish Hunting Dog in its homeland. Just like his father and grandfather he hunted with hounds and bred them. In his breeding program and he predominantly used dogs from the southeastern areas of Poland, mainly in the Bieszczady mountains, close to the Ukrainian border.

Although hounds have been around in Poland for centuries, the Polish Hunting Dog has existed in an official way only since 1983 when it was standardized. In 2006, at the occasion of the World Dog Show in Poznan, Poland, the breed was provisionally recognized by the FCI, the Polish dog world was delighter.