The dog entering the shop was petrified (video)

While it may seem strange for a dog to react like this in a shop, it is actually a perfectly natural, instinctive response.

To the untrained eye, the behaviour of a dog recently caught on camera in a French shop may seem strange, and perhaps even strange to some dog owners. From one moment to the next, the hound was frozen motionless from what they saw. What does this mean?

The hunting dog signals: instinctive behaviour

Although the sight may seem unusual, their owners were not for a moment surprised or frightened. It is a completely natural and instinctive behaviour of hunting dogs. While walking, they suddenly freeze. Their tail and one foreleg lift up, their nose points to a point and they do not move. This is called a game stop. It is no coincidence that two of the legendary Hungarian dog breeds are vizslas. After all, Hungary has a long tradition of hunting both small game and big game. Hundreds of years ago, pheasants, rabbits, waterfowl, wild boar and deer were still being hunted in unbelievable quantities in the forests of the Carpathian Basin. Today, however, the former abundance of game has faded, but the instinctive behaviour of the selected hunting dogs has remained.

A great game stop and pull by a young female Hungarian Short-haired Vizsla:

The Vizslas, the hounds and pedigree dogs all show signs, whether they live in a flat in a capital city, in a country garden or with hunters. It’s worth looking into, as we can see this peculiar habit in our pets even when hunting is as far away from us as possible.

Dogs have assisted their owners in many different roles during the hunt over the centuries.
The dogs used for hunting can be divided into two broad categories, depending on the size of the object being hunted. There are big game and small game dogs.

The small game dogs’ tasks include tracking game by scent pattern and indicating its location to the hunter by the game stop shown in the video above. Once shot, they must go on command to retrieve the shot game and bring it back to their owner.

Dog breeds bred for small game hunting can be divided into two broad groups. For continental vizslas (e.g. wirehaired and short-haired Hungarian vizsla, Weimaraner, German pointer) and British and Irish pointers and setters (e.g. Irish setter, Gordon setter, English setter).

Click on the names of the dogs to read their breed descriptions and get to know them better.