Last Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Quick Links: Table of Contents
- How Smart is the Irish Water Spaniel?
- Irish Water Spaniel Intelligence. A Second Opinion
- The Intelligence of Irish Water Spaniel Compared to Other Dog Breeds
- Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter than a Cat?
- What is the IQ of the Irish Water Spaniel?
How Smart is the Irish Water Spaniel?
The Irish Water Spaniel is a dog breed that is known to be:
- Active
- Alert
- Clownish
- Inquisitive
- Intelligent
- Quick
But, how smart is the Irish Water Spaniel really?
The Irish Water Spaniel is the 24th smartest dog when it comes to obedience and working intelligence.
Accordingly, compared to other dogs, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
These facts on Irish Water Spaniel intelligence are from the published work on dog intelligence and behavior by the renowned Prof. Stanley Coren. Coren is a Canadian Psychology Professor and Dog Researcher.
In the 1990s, Prof. Coren did extensive scientific research where he `measured` what is called the Working or Obedience Intelligence of more than 130 different dog breeds.
Note that the working/obedience intelligence of a dog is one of the three intelligence components that constitute a dog`s total intelligence. But it is the only intelligence component that can be measured and compared among dog breeds.
Later on, we will further explain what the working/obedience intelligence means, and what the other two parts of a dog`s intelligence are.
For his research on measuring and ranking the intelligence of dog breeds, Prof. Coren consulted with:
- Over two hundred dog obedience judges
- Over sixty veterinarians, and
- Fourteen guard dog experts
From his research data, Prof. Coren ranked dog breeds according to their obedience intelligence from the smartest to the least smart.
According to the study, the smartest dog breed is the Border Collie. Border Collies are so smart that they can understand any new command that you are trying to teach them after repeating the command to them five times or fewer.
The least smart dog breed is the Afghan Hound. The Afghan Hound is one of the dog breeds with the lowest degree of Working/Obedience intelligence. It will take 80 to 100 repetitions or more for an Afghan Hound to learn a new command.
As mentioned earlier, the Irish Water Spaniel is the 24th smartest dog breed.
Furthermore, Coren placed dog breeds into one of six intelligence categories:
- Brightest Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After Fewer Than 5 Repetitions
- Excellent Working Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions
- Above Average Working Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 15 To 25 Repetitions
- Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions
- Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions!
- Lowest Degree of Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 80 To 100 Repetitions Or More!
The Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
However, note that obedience intelligence is one of the many things that make a good dog. The fact that a dog breed has a low obedience intelligence DOES NOT MEAN the dog breed with not excel at other things.
Intelligence is just one of the many things that make dogs the excellent human companions that they are.
See the intelligence ranking of a few selected dog breeds in the table below: (note, although 133 dog breeds were studied, there are 79 positions because some breeds tied for the same position)
Click here to see the intelligence rank of all 133 dog breeds.
| Breed | Intelligence Rank |
|---|---|
| How Smart is the Labrador Retriever? | Ranked 7th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Rottweiler? | Ranked 9th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Standard Schnauzer? | Ranked 18th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Irish Water Spaniel? | Ranked 24th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Vizsla? | Ranked 25th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Yorkshire Terrier? | Ranked 27th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the English Setter? | Ranked 37th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Curly-Coated Retriever? | Ranked 41st out of 79 |
| How Smart is the American Water Spaniel? | Ranked 44th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the West Highland White Terrier? | Ranked 47th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Great Dane? | Ranked 48th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Chinese Shar-Pei? | Ranked 51st out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Pug? | Ranked 57th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Maltese? | Ranked 59th out of 79 |
| How Smart is the Old English Sheepdog? | Ranked 63rd out of 79 |
Irish Water Spaniel Intelligence. A Second Opinion
We reviewed another research study to find out more about the intelligence of the Irish Water Spaniel. This other study is The Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) study.
This study was done by research veterinarians from the University of Pennsylvania.
In the study, the researchers asked owners of different dog breeds, including owners of the Irish Water Spaniel to describe how trainable their dogs are.
10 Irish Water Spaniel owners were asked to describe
how easy it was to train their Irish Water Spaniel in the CBARQ research survey.We analyzed what these Irish Water Spaniel owners said about the trainability of their Irish Water Spaniels and compared that to what other owners said about other dog breeds (125 other breeds).
Dogs that are easy to train are always very eager to listen to their owner. These dogs are not stubborn. These dogs obey simple commands, and they learn very quickly.
Also, dogs that are easy to train tend to do well at fetching objects when asked to. Furthermore, this category of dogs also responds positively to correction and ignores distraction.
According to the results from the CBARQ research, Irish Water Spaniels are very much easy to train.
In fact, the Irish Water Spaniel ranks 5th out of 124 dog breeds for easiness to train.
Based on our further analysis of the CBARQ research data, we found that the Irish Water Spaniel has a trainability score of 95.0 %.
Other dog breeds that are very much easy to train just like the Irish Water Spaniel are listed in the table below:
| Trainability Rank | Breed | Trainability Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belgian Tervuren | 100.0 % |
| 2 | Belgian Malinois | 99.2 % |
| 3 | Border Collie | 97.3 % |
| 4 | Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever | 95.3 % |
| 5 | Irish Water Spaniel | 95.0 % |
| 6 | Portuguese Water Dog | 91.9 % |
| 7 | Australian Cattle Dog | 91.8 % |
| 8 | Rottweiler | 91.1 % |
According to the CBARQ research data, the dog breeds that are most easy to train are the:
According to the CBARQ research data, the dog breeds that are most difficult to train are the:
However, it is important to note that trainability does not always equal intelligence.
This is because a dog can be smart and stubborn at the same time. A smart but stubborn dog will be hard to train.
Visit this page to see the complete temperament profile (trainability, aggression, shyness, prey drive, etc) of the Irish Water Spaniel according to the result of the CBARQ research study.
The Three Parts of the Intelligence of the Irish Water Spaniel
As mentioned earlier, Prof. Coren ranked dogs based on what is called the `Working/Obedience` Intelligence.
The `Working/Obedience` Intelligence is one of the three parts of a dog`s overall intelligence.
All the three parts that make up a dog`s overall intelligence are:
- Instinctive Intelligence: This is the natural intelligence that comes from instinct. For example, dog breeds that have been historically bred to be guard or hunt dogs will have a high `guarding` or `hunting` intelligence compared to dogs that were not bred for guarding or hunting.
- Adaptive Intelligence: This indicates what a dog can learn to do for himself or herself. Adaptive intelligence is specific to each dog, and not specific to a dog breed. You can improve your dog`s adaptive intelligence (and therefore its overall intelligence) by investing time to train your dog.
- Working/Obedience Intelligence: This intelligence type is the subject of this article. This type of intelligence is breed-specific. Certain dog breeds tend to have higher working/obedience intelligence than other breeds. This intelligence is the closest to what we might call school-learning ability and it is based upon what the dog can learn to do when instructed by humans. This type of intelligence can be measured for each dog breed. Furthermore, the working/obedience intelligence of one dog breed can be compared to that of another dog breed to see which dog is smarter
You can tell what type of instinctive intelligence a dog breed will have based on the dog group the dog belongs.
The Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the Sporting Dogs group.
Dogs in the Sporting Dogs group, like the Irish Water Spaniel, were bred to help hunters catch and retrieve feathered game..
The natural breed-specific working/obedience intelligence is a heavy chunk of a dog`s overall intelligence.
According to Prof. Coren, 51 percent of a dog`s intelligence comes from its genes while 49 percent of a dog`s intelligence comes from the dog`s environmental circumstances. Environmental circumstances include how much training you give to a dog.
In short, it will be much easier to train a naturally smart dog.
However, we should mention that a dog breed should not be judged based on its intelligence alone.
There are other important factors you need to consider when deciding on which dog breed to get.
The most important factor to consider is how compatible a dog breed`s overall temperament is with your lifestyle.
The Intelligence of Irish Water Spaniel Compared to Other Dog Breeds
See how smart the Irish Water Spaniel is compared to some other dog breeds.
To see how smart the Irish Water Spaniel is compared to all other dog breeds, see this ranking of dog breeds based on intelligence.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter Than the Jack Russell Terrier?
The Irish Water Spaniel is smarter than the Jack Russell Terrier.
This is because the Irish Water Spaniel ranks 24th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Jack Russell Terrier is 46th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).
Because of its intelligence rank of 24th, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 46th, the Jack Russell Terrier belongs to the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.
This means that Jack Russell Terriers tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.
| Irish Water Spaniel | Jack Russell Terrier | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 24th out of 133 dog breeds | 46th out of 133 dog breeds |
| Learning Ability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions | Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions |
Learn more about how smart Jack Russell Terriers are here.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter Than the Bernese Mountain Dog?
The Bernese Mountain Dog is smarter than the Irish Water Spaniel.
This is because the Bernese Mountain Dog ranks 22nd out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Irish Water Spaniel is 24th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).
Because of its intelligence rank of 24th, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 22nd, the Bernese Mountain Dog belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Bernese Mountain Dogs tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
| Irish Water Spaniel | Bernese Mountain Dog | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 24th out of 133 dog breeds | 22nd out of 133 dog breeds |
| Learning Ability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions |
Learn more about how smart Bernese Mountain Dogs are here.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter Than the American Bulldog?
The Irish Water Spaniel is smarter than the American Bulldog.
This is because the Irish Water Spaniel ranks 24th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the American Bulldog is 77th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).
Because of its intelligence rank of 24th, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 77th, the American Bulldog belongs to the `Lowest Degree of Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.
This means that American Bulldogs tend to learn new commands after 80 to 100 repetitions or more!.
| Irish Water Spaniel | American Bulldog | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 24th out of 133 dog breeds | 77th out of 133 dog breeds |
| Learning Ability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions | Tend To Learn New Commands After 80 To 100 Repetitions Or More! |
Learn more about how smart American Bulldogs are here.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter Than the Great Dane?
The Irish Water Spaniel is smarter than the Great Dane.
This is because the Irish Water Spaniel ranks 24th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Great Dane is 48th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).
Because of its intelligence rank of 24th, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 48th, the Great Dane belongs to the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.
This means that Great Danes tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.
| Irish Water Spaniel | Great Dane | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 24th out of 133 dog breeds | 48th out of 133 dog breeds |
| Learning Ability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions | Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions |
Learn more about how smart Great Danes are here.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter Than the Fox Terrier?
The Irish Water Spaniel is smarter than the Fox Terrier.
This is because the Irish Water Spaniel ranks 24th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Fox Terrier is 40th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).
Because of its intelligence rank of 24th, the Irish Water Spaniel belongs to the `Excellent Working Dogs` category.
This means that Irish Water Spaniels tend to learn new commands after 5 to 15 repetitions.
On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 40th, the Fox Terrier belongs to the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.
This means that Fox Terriers tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.
| Irish Water Spaniel | Fox Terrier | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Rank | 24th out of 133 dog breeds | 40th out of 133 dog breeds |
| Learning Ability | Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions | Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions |
Learn more about how smart Fox Terriers are here.
Is the Irish Water Spaniel Smarter than a Cat?
Dogs have more neurons in their brains than cats. In fact, a dog has twice the number of brain neurons of a cat (500 million versus 250 million neurons).
This is according to a research study in which the scientist counted the number of brain neurons in dogs and in cats.
Brain neurons are used for processing information. Hence, it is likely that the Irish Water Spaniel will have a better information processing power than a cat
Thus, if we are to use the number of neurons in an animal`s brain as a measure of intelligence, then the Irish Water Spaniel is definitely way smarter than a cat because the Irish Water Spaniel has twice as many brain neurons as a cat.
However, intelligence is a very complex concept that may not be explained simply by how many neurons an animal`s brain has. Learn more here.
What is the IQ of the Irish Water Spaniel?
Before discussing the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of the Irish Water Spaniel, let us first define what Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is. IQ is simply a measure of how mentally advanced a person is relative to that person`s chronological age (the typical age that is calculated from birthday).
For example, a 2-year-old child with the mental capacity of a 4-year-old has an IQ of 200 (that is 4 divided by 2, multiplied by 100).
This is an old but simple definition of IQ.
According to Prof. Stanley Coren, a dog has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child.
Let us assume that Irish Water Spaniels become full-grown and reach mental maturity at the age of one year.
Also, let us make the bold assumption that, as Irish Water Spaniels get older, they do not get significantly smarter than a 2-year-old human child (You Can`t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks).
Thus, a one-year-old Irish Water Spaniel will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and a 2-year-old Irish Water Spaniel will still have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and a 3-year-old Irish Water Spaniel will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and so on.
Then, from the way IQ is defined, a one-year-old Irish Water Spaniel, which will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old child, has an IQ of 200! This is not too surprising because Irish Water Spaniels mature and age faster than humans.
A one-year-old Irish Water Spaniel is twice as smart as a one-year-old human child.
Also, since a 2-year-old Irish Water Spaniel will have the intelligence of a two-year-old human, then the corresponding IQ of a 2-year-old Irish Water Spaniel is 100. Similarly, a three-year-old Irish Water Spaniel will still have the mental capacity of a two-year-old human, making its IQ 66, and so on.
These may sound odd. But this is because the concept of IQ was designed to test human intelligence and not Irish Water Spaniel intelligence. That is what you get when you use human intelligence as a reference to measure Irish Water Spaniel intelligence.
Conclusion
We hope this article has provided you with all the facts you need to know on Irish Water Spaniel intelligence.
To learn more about the Irish Water Spaniel, check out our article where we reviewed the Irish Water Spaniel breed.
Also, to learn more about the temperament and behavior of the Irish Water Spaniel, check out our article on the temperament profile of the Irish Water Spaniel. This will tell you what Irish Water Spaniels are really like.
If you do not own the Irish Water Spaniel yet, and you are planning to get one, check out our list of reputable Irish Water Spaniel breeders and article on Irish Water Spaniel price and buying advice.