How Smart Are Vizslas? Comparison to Other Breeds & FAQs
By Misty Layne
Updated on
If you’re not overly familiar with the Vizsla dog breed, you’ll probably want to learn more about these gorgeous pups. The Vizsla breed came from Hungary and was bred to aid hunters by pointing and trailing. Long the pride of Hungarian sportsmen, the Vizsla has gained popularity in the United States in recent years. Though they are hunters, these dogs are also sweet, affectionate, and become very close to their owners.
But how smart are Vizslas? As hunting dogs, you’d imagine they’d be fairly intelligent. And they are! While not the absolute smartest dogs out there, the Vizsla came in at #25 in Stanley Coren’s famous study on canine intelligence.1 Ready to learn more about that study and how smart Vizslas are? Then keep reading!
How Are Dog Smarts Determined?
You may not be familiar with Stanley Coren either—he’s a neuropsychological researcher who has written extensively about the mental abilities and intelligence of dogs.2 The study mentioned above was one he put together that surveyed 199 dog obedience judges. The survey asked them how well canine breeds did in meeting the following criteria:
- The number of times a command must be given until a dog learns it
- Whether a canine would obey a command it knows and how quickly it did so
Why these two criteria? These measure a dog’s obedience and working intelligence, which we’ll discuss further below. How do these determine how smart a dog is? The dog breeds able to respond to known commands quickly are smarter than those that don’t respond as fast. And breeds capable of picking up new commands in fewer tries are more intelligent than those that need many repetitions.
How Do Vizslas Compare to Other Breeds?
As we said, the Vizsla came in at #25 on Stanley Coren’s list of the most intelligent dogs that resulted from the study above. But what does that mean exactly? Well, Vizslas were in the second tier of intelligent canines, which means they are working dogs of above-average intelligence capable of learning new commands after 5–15 repetitions and obeying known commands at least 85% of the time.
Compare that to the top tier of intelligent pups, or the smartest working dogs, that learn new commands in under 5 repetitions and obey known commands 95% or more of the time. Then there’s the tier below the one the Vizsla was placed in, where working dogs pick up new commands in 15–25 tries and only obey known commands 70% of the time.
So, the Vizsla may not be the smartest pup on the block, but it still ranks pretty high in intelligence!
Not Just Obedience and Working Intelligence
Obedience and working intelligence aren’t the only ways to determine how smart a canine is, though. According to Coren, other aspects of dog intelligence can be used to make a determination. While there are many aspects to be found, such as interpersonal, spatial, instinctive, and adaptive intelligence, it’s instinctive and adaptive intelligence that can also be used to figure out how smart a pup is.
Instinctive Intelligence
What is instinctive intelligence? This aspect of intelligence relates to how well a canine does the job it was bred for (aka instinctive abilities). So, for the Vizsla, this would mean how well it is able to aid hunters via pointing and trailing.
Adaptive Intelligence
Adaptive intelligence is the area of intelligence that relates to how well a dog is able to learn by itself. Think about when your dog is faced with a challenging puzzle toy or even something as simple as a barrier to where it wants to be. How quickly can your pup come up with a solution to the problem? That’s adaptive intelligence at work!
How Can I Test My Vizsla’s Smarts?
If you are a Vizsla pet parent and want to figure out just how smart your four-legged friend is, you can! All you have to do is give your Vizsla a doggie IQ test. A doggie IQ test is fairly easy to do, as it just involves setting up specific tasks for your pup to accomplish. These tasks will test a variety of skills that include cognition, learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and more. You’ll need to time how fast your Vizsla is at finishing these tasks, and with that, you can determine just how smart your pet is.
Final Thoughts
If you have a Vizsla, congratulations; you have one smart pup on your hands! While not in the top tier of most intelligent dog breeds, the Vizsla is in the second tier, which is pretty high up there. That means the breed is capable of learning new commands rather quickly and is excellent at obeying known commands.
Want to test your dog’s smarts? Then give your pup a doggie IQ test. Your pet will have fun with the tasks as they are mentally stimulating, and you will get to determine just how intelligent your favorite canine is.
Featured Image Credit: hazelw90, Pixabay
