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Magyar Agar — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Magyar Agar

Temperament: Calm, reserved, and independent. Magyar Agars are affectionate with their people but aloof with strangers. Built for endurance rather than sprint speed, they have a strong prey drive and need daily exercise, but settle easily indoors.
Height: Males: 25-27.5 inches (65-70 cm), Females: 24-26 inches (62-67 cm)
Weight: 49-68 pounds (22-31 kg)
Life Span: 12-14 years
Outlier Index ?
0.36
Born before 2016: 0.37 Born after 2024: —
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
0.02
Born before 2016: 0.02 Born after 2024: —
Internal Relatedness ?
-0.02
Born before 2016: -0.03 Born after 2024: —
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Szarsomlyo-Hegyi Emir M 0.36 0.03 -0.13
2 Szarsomlyo-Hegyi Armany M 0.45 0.01 -0.07
3 Szarsomlyo-Hegyi Zafir F 0.30 0.03 0.13
4 Szarsomlyo-Hegyi Vica F 0.51 0.03 -0.14
5 Szarsomlyo-Hegyi Harmat F 0.35 0.08 -0.07
6 Ugyes F 0.23 0.07 0.06
7 Helga F 0.37 0.02 0.13
8 Janoshaza Melleki Ereny F 0.34 0.04 0.05
9 Enyingi Miranda F 0.36 -0.02 0.08
10 Enyingi Lelkes F 0.27 0.06 -0.07
The Magyar Agar, or Hungarian Greyhound, is a sighthound developed over many centuries by Hungarian peoples for hunting and coursing hare and fox across the open plains of the Carpathian Basin. The breed is built more for stamina than the Greyhound's pure speed, reflecting a working life spent covering distance rather than running short tracks. Numbers fell sharply during and after World War II, and the breed came close to losing its working identity under the pressures of communist-era Hungary. Dedicated fanciers in Hungary and abroad have rebuilt it, but the worldwide population remains small.
As a low-popularity breed, the Magyar Agar has not been surveyed extensively for breed-specific disease. Hip dysplasia, epilepsy, and hypothyroidism have been reported. Sighthounds as a group have increased sensitivity to anesthesia and to several drug classes, and breeders should assume that applies here as well.
VGL has reported Magyar Agars carrying an average of around 7.24 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 3.83. Those are respectable numbers for a breed with such a narrow post-war founder base. As in most breeds, a subset of alleles dominates and the rarer ones need deliberate attention to keep them in circulation. VGL testing has found Magyar Agars in surprisingly decent shape for such a small worldwide population. Observed heterozygosity comes in slightly higher than expected, which gives a small negative inbreeding coefficient - meaning the breed overall is being bred more outbred than random pairing would produce. That is a good sign and suggests breeders are actively picking less related mates. Individual dogs still vary widely, so the breed-wide number should not be taken as the whole story.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Magyar Agar dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1058
22.4%
1054
19.0%
1066
8.6%
1104
8.6%
1052
5.2%
1208
5.2%
1163
5.2%
1207
3.5%
1209
3.5%
1033
3.5%
1206
3.5%
1205
3.5%
1162
3.5%
1067
1.7%
1215
1.7%
1242
1.7%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2017
62.1%
2006
12.1%
2047
10.3%
2016
5.2%
2046
5.2%
2037
3.5%
2029
1.7%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1058 2017
22.4%
1054 2017
19.0%
1104 2017
8.6%
1052 2017
5.2%
1066 2046
5.2%
1208 2006
5.2%
1163 2016
5.2%
1162 2006
3.5%
1209 2017
3.5%
1207 2037
3.5%
1206 2047
3.5%
1205 2047
3.5%
1033 2006
3.5%
1066 2047
3.5%
1067 2017
1.7%
1215 2029
1.7%
1242 2017
1.7%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.