Mudi breed guide

The Mudi is vocal, alert, energetic, intelligent, biddable and adaptable. It is always enthusiastic about any job, which makes it very trainable and eager to please. AKC adds that it is sensibly suspicious and an excellent watchdog.

Though calm and relaxed in the house, once outside it appreciates a good run. It excels at flyball, obedience, herding and frisbee.

Mudis live 12 to 14 years. AKC describes the breed as healthy overall. The Mudi Club of America recommends the testing listed on the CHIC website. Responsible breeders screen their stock.

The Mudi is an easily cared-for wash-and-wear breed: occasional baths, a combing or brushing to remove dead hair and regular nail care are sufficient.

Playful and sometimes mischievous, particularly about digging, Mudis are also noted for extraordinary jumping.

The Magyars kept sheepdogs from around the end of the ninth century, but pedigree breeding and classification started only in the second half of the 19th century. Hungarian sheepdogs were simply divided into large and small, so the early history of the Mudi is much like that of the Pumi and the Puli.

Around 1930 Dr. Dezso Fenyes, director of the museum in Balassagyarmat, was one of the first breeders to work with the breed. AKC estimates no more than a few thousand Mudi exist worldwide, mostly in Hungary and Finland.