The word "puli" though clearly relates to a dog of some kind, probably the earliest domesticated dog, and the recognised as an individual breed. There is sufficient evidence found in the Sumeria to support this. Therefore it surely must be believed that such a dog migrated to where he was eventually going to find his home, with the nomadic tribes of that time.

The Hungarian Puli we know today, is probably very different from the puli of yester year, although no doubt his intelligence and capabilities are much the same.

The above Cuneiform words present on the top the name puli, the one below komondor

A puli is believed to be the earliest and most ancient domesticated dog, in his own right an individual breed, representing a separate group of canine, many thousands of years before the other four recognised ancient wild breeds.

From what we have seen his origins look to come from Sumeria, and it is here that we have to look to see how the puli emerged as such an important part of life in Hungary. Sumerian families were large and having many animals to look after. The headman of the family would designate work, herdsmen, shepherds, hand workers etc, the animals and property all belonging to the family. A puli would be considered a family member because of his renowned capabilities.

When the nomadic tribes finally settled after the conquest, no real change was made to their way of life, except maybe that whilst the shepherds spent most of their time working on the plains, the woman folk stayed at home, preparing produce and products to take to local town markets to sell. Rarely did the men or their pulis go. Hence, hardly any written reference was ever made about the hard working little dog, during that time, as those who were capable of doing so, never saw the puli.

This more than likely accounts for the Hungarians being aware of the word puli, and that he was a small dog owned by shepherds, but had little knowledge of the breed, which in turn may well be the reason the puli "disappeared" for a number of centuries.

Changes at the beginning of the 1900’s saw the nomadic type of shepherding being replaced by intensive animal keeping, thus work for the puli ceased, as did the breeding of this unique canine.

A group of veterinarians and scientists suddenly recognised that national was about to loose a great treasure, one which for years had worked so hard and faithfully.

This entailed much work and research, one complication being the arrival of western culture sheep in Hungary in the 1800’s together with herd dogs that were from terrier and spitz types, resulting in a number of cross bred dogs. Eventually a description of the breed was formulated together with a proposal for saving the sheep dogs.

In 1924 the Pedigree Of Hungarian Sheepdogs was founded, this being part of the National Society of Hungarian Dog Breeders, this brought much progress and it became possible to survey and plan the breeding of Hungarian Pulis.

This is not to say that there were not problems, for there was clearly a spitz type blood in the Hungarian Pulis and a Pumi also emerged.

A puli of yester year

Exhibitions were an important part of the work done during these years, Hungarian Pulis were judges separately according to their coat type - well groomed and shaggy, and also their size.

However, and progress made was stopped by the second World War when breed came to a halt, a promising Hungarian Puli generation of the 1930’s could not fulfil the hopes placed on them. After the war a State programme was put in place, this according to some may have resulted in more problems that good, and by the end of the

1950’s it became obvious the four specified sizes were causing concern. Whereas only Hungarian Pulis of identical size were being bred from, this was not being adhered to as it was considered a puppy would fit into one of the standards - Big Puli - over 50 cms, Medium Puli - 40 to 50 cms, Small Puli - 30 to 40 cms, Dwarf Puli - under 30 cms.

n the 1960’s a standard for the Hungarian Puli was determined, which in turn led to a conference of world wide Hungarian Puli breeders in 1966 to discuss same, as it was considered a way forward in cleaning up any misunderstandings or lack of information. The result of this gathering established friendships and connections in many parts of the world.

Hungarian Pulis

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