How would you describe your dog's personality? If you have ever done a consultation with me, you've probably heard me ask this question.

This question tells me a lot. Not just about your dog. Or his personality. It tells me a lot about how people perceive or view their dogs.

I could also ask what your dog's temperament is like.

According to Wikipedia, under Dog Behavior:

“The term personality has been applied to human research, whereas the term temperament has been mostly used for animal research. However, both terms have been used interchangeably in the literature, or purely to distinguish humans from animals and avoid anthropomorphism. Personality can be defined as “a set of behaviors that are consistent over context and time”. Studies of dogs' personalities have tried to identify the presence of broad personality traits that are stable and consistent over time.”

So, before you read any further. . . how would you answer that question right now? What comes to mind? Take your time. Got your answer?

Also according to Wikipedia's page on Dog Behavior:

“Several potential personality traits have been identified in dogs, for instance “Playfulness”, “Curiosity/Fearlessness, “Chase-proneness”, “Sociability and Aggressiveness” and “Shyness–Boldness”.  A meta-analysis of 51 published peer reviewed articles identified seven dimensions of canine personality:

1. Reactivity (approach or avoidance of new objects, increased activity in novel situations)
2. Fearfulness (shaking, avoiding novel situations)
3. Activity
4. Sociability (initiating friendly interactions with people and other dogs)
5. Responsiveness to training (working with people, learning quickly)
6. Submissiveness
7. Aggression

Dog breed plays an important role in the dog’s personality dimensions, while the effects of age and sex have not been clearly determined. The personality models can be used for a range of tasks, including guide and working dog selection, finding appropriate families to re-home shelter dogs, or selecting breeding stock.”

So what did you come up with in your answer? Did it relate at all to any of the above-mentioned items? Or was it something completely different?

I sat down to determine what I would say about my guy, Zooka. Our Vizsla is 9 months old now, in February 2020. Here's how I would describe his personality. . .

Zooka is a pretty even-tempered guy. He is a Vizsla, and right now, he's a teenage boy. So he has plenty of energy. So I am not talking about energy level. I am saying he is actually a pretty chill guy. He's pretty laid back. That does not mean he does not have a lot of energy too.

While I try very hard not to hold him up to any standards met by previous dogs, I do compare often to prior dogs. You can't help but compare. Just make sure you're not unfairly judging or holding your new dog to a standard they cannot possibly meet.

That being said, I often compare his “personality” traits to those of my previous dogs, especially Romeo and Zuzu who were my most recent other dogs. They were also the only other two that I have raised from puppies. All of my other prior dogs were rescues who were 1.5 to 3 years  old when I adopted them.

Back to personality. I mention comparing because I often compare what Zooka is like now to what I remember of Romeo and Zuzu around these younger days. Romeo was. . . my most often-used word for him was INTENSE. He was not a laid back guy. He could be chill at certain times. But his main personality trait would never have been described as “easy-going” by anyone who knew him.

Zooka loves to have fun. As do most puppies and adolescent dogs. He loves to play. But he's never shown any signs of possessiveness or any signs of aggression or willingness to fight for what is important to him.

Romeo loved loved loved to be chased. From early on and for his entire life, he loved to have someone CHASE him. As a pup, he would take things he knew I did not want him to have to try to entice me to chase.

When Zooka was young, I thought he might like to play Chase as well. I would pretend to stalk him to see if I could get a game going. He never flinched and never ever ran from me. I would stalk, and he would stand there and watch me as if he had no clue what I was trying to do.

Zuzu's favorite game was Tug. As a pup, she loved playing Tug more than she liked treats. We often used a game of Tug as a reward since food was not that enticing. I had high hopes for playing lots of Tug with Zooka. A great game (if you have the right rules in place!) to bond and have fun and use as reward. I tried early on with him and he didn't get Tug either. Why would we oppose each other? Why would we battle for something?

What I am indicating about his personality is that he is playful but not competitive. His natural inclination was never to play in a way that created any “conflict” even if it was playful and all in fun. That baffled me a bit at first, because Romeo and Zuzu were definitely NOT that way at all! They loved “battles” of their own sorts. Not in aggressive or mean ways, just in fun. But Zooka just didn't get any of that early on.

While it made it harder to play with him in some ways, I really liked that his personality was not competitive. Fortunately, I am not as competitive as I was in my younger days!

When other dogs would try to get him to Tug or Chase or play Keep Away early on, he didn't get in on it. He did love to wrestle. That was his favorite.

He will Chase now. He does love to run. But it's more in fun and not a competitive “I need to win” kind of way. He has even learned how to play Keep Away with other dogs (they have the toy and try to keep it away from him, rarely ever the other way around) and a bit of Tug. Again, he's not competitive about it.

When other dogs get possessive of stuff, he doesn't ever get into it. He does not see the point in being possessive or at least not enough so to fight over anything.

He is a very social guy. He loves to meet new people and new dogs – when allowed. He is very very interested in everyone else. He wants to make new friends and get to know everyone.

But at the same time, he's not overly interested in interacting with people. He loves to meet them and sometimes get attention. But he's not obsessive about getting prolonged attention. He loves the initial meet and greet. And he is much more interested in you if you have a treat pouch on, of course!

While a pretty outgoing guy, he knows how to be submissive and appease those dogs who are not quite sure about him or not sure they want to be friends. He seems able to read other dogs fairly well in when he needs to leave them alone or give them space. He also is pretty good about appeasing or groveling or making himself less threatening in order to attempt to win them over.

He has never to this day shown any aggression or any “meanness” toward anyone, people or dogs.

If he's had too much or is feeling overwhelmed or tired he will air snap at a dog to get them to back off and give him some space. Only defensiveness when feeling overwhelmed. Never any offensive aggression or possessiveness with toys or bones or things that might be valuable items.

While he is outgoing, he also has shown some degree of fearfulness about some things. Certain noises might spook him. Sometimes he will see something he is not sure of. He might bark at it. He might avoid but not typically run away from it. In most cases, we are able to slowly check it out and figure out it's nothing scary. He generally recovers quickly.

While I do like my dogs to be somewhat more on the fearless side, I do appreciate a dog who has enough sense to have some degree of fear for things that actually could be quite dangerous! No fear at all is a dangerous thing. But I do personally like my dogs to be on the bolder side rather than fearful.

I have had a couple of dogs who had some very serious fear issues. We worked through the vast majority of those, and they were fabulous dogs. So I am quite well-practiced at working through fear issues. I just like right now that I don't have to deal with any extreme fear issues. So we can focus on other stuff.

Zooka is fairly responsive. I would fit him somewhere in between Romeo and Zuzu as far as trainability. Romeo was super smart and learned fast. But I also was a lot more focused and determined with him, so part of that might have been me. I am more laid back this time around.

Zuzu was quite trainable, she just didn't always see the point. And repetition was just dumb, as far as she was concerned. She had more important things to do. Like hunt bunnies.

Zooka loves food and loves play and loves to explore. So there are lots of things to use as rewards. He is food motivated, but not nearly as much as Romeo was. But Zuzu was much less food motivated early on, so he is somewhere in between.

He is learning the things I want, though some things he does not seem to pick up on as fast as I would want or hope. But we just do more repetitions and we eventually get it.

Much like Zuzu and Romeo both, he is a hunter. Vizslas are pointers. They are bred to stalk prey and point it out. And boy, does he get that – and did from early on. He is thrilled beyond measure that we have lots of scrub oak to explore where birds and bunnies like to hang out. If you want to see Zooka in his happy place, come watch him off leash hunting in our scrub oak.

Ok, so normally when I ask someone about their dog's personality, I do not expect anywhere near this extensive of a response! But there it is. Do you have a much better feel for what Zooka is like now, even if you have never met him?

Now, do you want to go back and add to or change any of the answers about your own dog's personality?

How well do you know your own dog?

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