There are dogs that can be hunting dogs and house dogs, and good at both. Of course, I'm a tad prejudiced.
Our new Vizsla is a natural hunter, from what I can tell. He swam for the first time yesterday, after a very short time experimenting in the water. This was the first time he'd been in a body of water. He is 9 weeks old. My wife tossed a retriever dummy. He went and brought it back. He's never had a bit of training, because he's a baby still. He points honeybees, and he stalks our other dog already.
She's a 5-year-old Pit Bull. He spars with her constantly, and they have a blast. Yes, that's a 9-week-old Vizsla puppy, play-fighting with an adult Pit Bull, and there's no problem. He's friendly and good with little kids, and he's a snuggler, too.
That might be the key: get a really good, as in Field Champion pedigree, VHD (Versatile Hunting Dog) that can switch gears easily. Like islandphish's GSP (German Shorthair, another Versatile breed), a really great hunting dog will be fanatical about it. That doesn't mean he/she won't want to play with other dogs, snuggle with children, whatever. Just be vigilant and learn as much as you can about training. Our local NAVHDA chapter is great for that, BTW.
Our new Vizsla puppy with his new buddy:
What I've seen is that, while they're buddies, each dog will run off and pursue its own interests and ignore the other, if there's something interesting enough. The pitbull likes water retrieving tennis balls. When I tossed a ball 50 yards out in the water, she took off like a rocket, running right over him when he got in the way. If a dog wants to hunt (or whatever activity), then that interest can transcend ALL distractions.
You will have to pay attention and do some extra work, but that's true with training any dog when there's a whole pack. If you have a good "pack", a new dog can be easier to manage. That's one of Cesar Millan's secrets: he lets his already-trained pack do a lot of the work for him, when rehabbing a behavior-problem dog.
If you currently have a pack of untrained, semi-feral dogs, you have a LOT of work ahead of you, though, with all of them.
This much I do know, however. Vizslas tend to be very vocal. Some people who have a bunch of them have Field Champion titles for several dogs. They bark all the time, at each other, at gophers, at the wind, at whatever. Doesn't seem to get in the way of their hunting ability.
Bark collars are effective, BTW, if you need them, or if you have neighbors.
Browse around here:
http://www.navhda.org/