How can I measure a DNS server response time?

I have been having problems these past weeks, and after running some tests with Visualroute I have found that it takes little too long time when I make a DNS query to the DNS server of my ISP. I can see at least for one second "DNS loockup" in Visuaroute's dislpay before it actually starts the trace. I have some other DNS addresses to try, but I would like to know if there is a controlled way to measure the real response time of a DNS server to a query, with this I can choose the fastest one. I have tried to ping them (I have 6 different DNSs to try) and they answer almost the same, and there is one that appears to be programmed to not answer ping commands.
It must be a way to measure DNS time response no?

Thanks for the help.
 
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