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# Are Dachshunds Smart? (The Answer Will Annoy the Rankings People)
- URL: https://www.doxiereport.com/are-dachshunds-smart/
- Published: 2026-10-13T02:24:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T02:24:33.000Z
- Author: Stefan Lenassi
- Tags: Doxie Life

> Yes, dachshunds are smart — genuinely, measurably smart. They rank 92nd out of 138 breeds in obedience intelligence, but that test only measures how quickly a dog follows commands from a human. It doesn't measure problem-solving, independent thinking, or the kind of intelligence that lets a twelve-pound dog make life-or-death decisions alone in a badger den. When researchers test those abilities, dachshunds look very different.

You ever meet a dachshund who figured out how to open a cabinet?

Not by accident. Not because someone left it cracked.

I'm talking about the dog who watched you open it three times, studied the latch, and then one Tuesday afternoon while you were on a work call, quietly walked over and helped herself to the treats on the second shelf.

That's not a dumb dog.

But if you Google "are dachshunds smart," the first thing you'll find is a ranking that says they're average. Maybe even below average, depending on which list you're reading.

And you'll think: there is no way the animal who learned the word "walk" without being taught it, who knows the difference between your car keys and your house keys, who has figured out exactly which whimper gets you off the couch — there is no way that animal is average at anything.

You'd be right.

The ranking is real. But the test is rigged.

Let me explain.

## Where Do Dachshunds Rank on the Intelligence List?

In 1994, a psychology professor named Stanley Coren published *The Intelligence of Dogs*. He surveyed 199 obedience trial judges from the AKC and Canadian Kennel Club and asked them to rank breeds on two things: how many repetitions it took to learn a new command, and how often a dog obeyed a known command on the first try.

Dachshunds landed in the "average working/obedience intelligence" tier — roughly [92nd out of 138 breeds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FIntelligence%5Fof%5FDogs?ref=doxiereport.com).

What "average" means in Coren's system: dachshunds need 25 to 40 repetitions to learn a new command and obey a known command on the first attempt about 50% of the time.

For comparison, the top 10 breeds — Border Collie, Poodle, German Shepherd — learn new commands in fewer than 5 repetitions and obey on the first try [95% of the time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FIntelligence%5Fof%5FDogs?ref=doxiereport.com).

So yes. By that test, dachshunds are average.

But here's the thing Coren himself admits.

## Why Is That Ranking Unfair to Dachshunds?

Coren defined three types of dog intelligence. His famous ranking only measures one of them.

The ranking tests **obedience intelligence** — how fast a dog learns from and obeys a human. That's it. It doesn't test problem-solving. It doesn't test independent thinking. It doesn't test whether a dog can read your emotions, learn words without being taught them, or figure out how a door latch works.

As Coren himself has [noted](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/200907/canine-intelligence-breed-does-matter?ref=doxiereport.com), whether a dog seems smart or dumb depends on which specific aspects of its behavior you're looking at.

Here's why that matters for dachshunds specifically.

Dachshunds were [bred to hunt badgers underground](https://www.doxiereport.com/what-were-dachshunds-bred-for/). Alone. In the dark. In a den where they couldn't hear their handler and their handler couldn't see them. The whole point of the breed was to make decisions independently — to track by scent, navigate tunnels, corner an animal twice their size, and figure out what to do next without anyone telling them.

The AKC breed standard calls them ["clever, lively and courageous to the point of rashness"](https://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/Official%5FStandard%5FDachshund.pdf?ref=doxiereport.com) and specifies they should have "all the senses well-developed."

A dog that was designed over 300 years to think for itself was being graded on a test that rewards thinking for someone else.

That's like testing a chess player on how well they follow instructions.

## What Are the Three Types of Dog Intelligence?

Here's what Coren actually defined — and where dachshunds land in each:

**1\. Instinctive intelligence** — the natural ability to perform the tasks a breed was developed for. For dachshunds: scent tracking, den navigation, independent quarry management underground. The AKC still runs [Earthdog trials](https://www.akc.org/sports/earthdog/?ref=doxiereport.com) specifically for dachshunds and terriers, testing their natural willingness to enter dark dens and work quarry alone. **Dachshunds: high.**

**2\. Adaptive intelligence** — the ability to solve problems independently, learn from experience, and read human behavior without being taught. This is the type you see when your dachshund learns the word "vet" and suddenly disappears, or figures out that the sound of your car keys — not your house keys — means you're leaving. **Dachshunds: high.**

**3\. Working/obedience intelligence** — how quickly a dog learns from a human trainer and how reliably it obeys. This is the only type the ranking measures. **Dachshunds: average (92nd/138).**

Two out of three isn't bad. Especially when the one they scored average on is the one their entire breeding history was designed to ignore.

## What Does Brain Science Say About Dachshund Intelligence?

This is where it gets interesting — and where every other article on this topic stops short.

In 2019, a team led by Erin Hecht published a study in the [*Journal of Neuroscience*](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/39/39/7748?ref=doxiereport.com) that used MRI scans to map the brains of 62 purebred dogs across 33 breeds. They found six distinct brain networks that vary significantly across breeds — and the differences were driven by what the breed was selected to *do*, not by body size or skull shape.

One finding matters here: scent-hunting breeds showed specialized development in higher-order olfactory processing regions. Not just bigger noses — more complex brain architecture for interpreting what their nose tells them. That's processing power, not just hardware.

A 2020 study by MacLean and colleagues published in [*Animal Cognition*](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7423733/?ref=doxiereport.com) tested 1,508 dogs across 36 breeds and found that inhibitory control — the ability to stop yourself from doing something — was the most heritable cognitive trait at 70%. That's significant because what looks like a dachshund "ignoring" a command is often the dog exercising inhibitory control in reverse: choosing not to comply after weighing the request against their own assessment.

That's not dumb. That's a cost-benefit analysis.

And then there's [the Helsinki smartDOG study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26991-5?ref=doxiereport.com), published in *Scientific Reports* in 2022, which tested over 1,000 dogs on spatial problem-solving, reading human gestures, and something called the "impossible task" — a problem with no solution, designed to see whether a dog tries to solve it independently or turns to a human for help.

Breeds bred for independent work, like scent hounds, tended to keep trying on their own. Breeds bred for cooperation — retrievers, herders — turned to their human sooner.

Here's the thing: in standard cognition tests, turning to a human is often scored as "smarter." Which means independent breeds get penalized for the exact trait they were bred for.

Sound familiar?

## How Do Dachshunds Actually Show Their Intelligence?

Forget the rankings for a second. Here's what dachshund intelligence actually looks like in your living room:

**They learn words without being taught.** Walk. Treat. Car. Vet. Bed. Your dachshund didn't attend a vocabulary class. They associated sounds with outcomes by observing your behavior — which is [adaptive intelligence in action](https://thesmartcanine.com/are-dachshunds-smart/?ref=doxiereport.com).

**They manipulate their environment.** Opening cabinets. Engineering routes onto furniture. Burrowing under three layers of blankets to create the exact sleeping arrangement they want. That's spatial reasoning combined with goal-directed problem-solving.

**They read you better than you read them.** Your dachshund knows the difference between your "we're going to the park" shoes and your "I'm leaving for work" shoes. They know when you're about to say "no" before you say it. Research shows dogs in general are [on par with a 2-year-old child](https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2009/08/dogs-think?ref=doxiereport.com) for cognitive ability — and dachshunds, with their intense human focus, are among the most observant.

**They use selective obedience as a strategy.** As [PetMD notes](https://www.petmd.com/dog/breeds/dachshund?ref=doxiereport.com): "Dachshunds are undeniably smart and are great at solving problems." When a dachshund ignores a command, it's typically not confusion. It's the dog weighing your request against its own preference — and deciding, respectfully, that its plan is better.

Which, if you think about it, is a higher-order cognitive function than blind compliance.

If you want to understand why that independence makes training feel like a negotiation, I wrote about it in [Why Are Dachshunds So Stubborn?](https://www.doxiereport.com/why-are-dachshunds-so-stubborn/) — spoiler: they're not stubborn, they're just making decisions you didn't ask for.

And if you want the training playbook that actually works for a breed that thinks for itself, start with [Are Dachshunds Easy to Train?](https://www.doxiereport.com/are-dachshunds-easy-to-train/) — the short answer is yes, but not the way most trainers tell you.

## FAQ

### What is a dachshund's IQ compared to other dogs?

There's no standardized IQ test for dogs. Coren's ranking places dachshunds around 92nd of 138 breeds for obedience intelligence, but that only measures one type of cognitive ability. In adaptive and instinctive intelligence — problem-solving, independent thinking, scent work — dachshunds score significantly higher, though no single number captures it.

### Are mini dachshunds as smart as standard dachshunds?

Yes. A [2025 study of 183 miniature dachshunds](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39783580/?ref=doxiereport.com) found that cognitive and behavioral traits like sociability had a heritability of 0.514, meaning the behavioral blueprint is strongly genetic across both sizes. Minis and standards share the same breed intelligence — they're just running it in a smaller package.

### Why are dachshunds so hard to potty train?

It's not intelligence — it's priorities. Dachshunds are small with fast metabolisms, making accidents more common. They're also independent thinkers who need to understand *why* going outside benefits them. Consistent positive reinforcement works; punishment doesn't. I covered the full approach in [How to Potty Train a Dachshund](https://www.doxiereport.com/how-to-potty-train-a-dachshund/).

### Do dachshunds need mental stimulation?

Absolutely. A bored dachshund is a destructive dachshund. Puzzle feeders, scent games — hide treats and let them track by nose, which is what their brain was literally built for — and rotating toys all keep that independent mind engaged. [Dachshund Health UK](https://dachshundhealth.org.uk/?ref=doxiereport.com) recommends daily mental enrichment alongside physical exercise. A dachshund who digs your couch cushions isn't bad — they're under-stimulated.

### Are dachshunds smarter than their obedience ranking suggests?

Yes. Every peer-reviewed study on breed cognition shows that intelligence is multi-dimensional. Coren's ranking measures command compliance — one axis of a complex trait. When researchers test independent problem-solving, scent-based reasoning, and social cognition, breeds like dachshunds perform well. The ranking tells you how quickly they'll do what you ask. It tells you nothing about what they're capable of figuring out on their own.

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*Your dachshund isn't average. They're just not interested in proving it on someone else's terms.*

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*(Educational only — not veterinary advice. When in doubt, call your vet. Always call your vet.)*