You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for a swimming or fishing buddy. Portuguese water dogs are natural-born swimmers, athletes through and through. These dogs are ideal for people who lead active lifestyles or who want a dog to do a lot of competition training with because they have strong bodies and incredibly sharp minds.
Owner of Cindel Portuguese Water Dogs Cindra Delgado describes them as “the ultimate velcro dog.” “They follow you everywhere. “.
Portuguese water dogs make great pets for families because they are playful and eager to please. They have also achieved success as therapy and service dogs due to their high intelligence and strong empathy.
Despite the fact that the Portuguese water dog breed’s genetic ancestry is somewhat hazy given that it dates back almost 800 years, experts believe that poodles are the breed’s closest genetic relative. When you see them, it makes a lot of sense because the two breeds share a lot of the same traits. The coat of a Portuguese water dog can be curly or wavy. The hair is medium to long and single-coated in both instances. The coat comes in brown, tan, black, and white hues, with the latter by far the most uncommon. Some Portuguese water dogs have coats that are two or three colors, with black and tan being the most typical combination. Another frequent coloring is for all-black or all-brown species to have a white chin smear (known as a “milk chin”).
Coats are typically cut in one of two ways: either the “lion cut” or the “retriever cut.” “The latter cuts the coat evenly over the entire body, down to about 1 inch in length, as opposed to the former, which trims the muzzle, hindquarters, and base of the tail short and leaves the rest long.”
The Portuguese water dog is an extremely infrequent shedder. When they do release hair, most of it gets caught in their waves or curls. Portuguese water dogs are well-known as a breed that is excellent for people with allergies to hair or dander, despite the fact that no dog is truly “hypoallergenic” because they all shed to some extent.
Their bodies aren’t quite square, being slightly longer than they are tall, and they have webbed feet that help them swim. Male Portuguese water dogs are slightly taller than females, standing between 20 and 23 inches.
The Portuguese water dog is incredibly intelligent, much like their poodle relatives. They were originally bred as fishing dogs and trained to herd schools of fish into nets, retrieve broken nets and tackle, and serve as messengers, bringing messages from ships to ships and ships to shore. Delgado asserts that Portuguese water dogs might perform better with experienced dog owners due to their intelligence and work ethic.
Portuguese water dogs enjoy learning new tricks and playing games now that they have largely made the transition from living with fish to living with families. To get people’s attention and make them laugh, they frequently act like clowns. They perform amazingly well in obedience, agility, flyball, and (of course) water competitions if you’re looking for a dog to compete with. Have your dog examined by a veterinarian first if you’re thinking about competing in sports.
Portuguese water dogs are social, outgoing animals that enjoy making new friends. In the right conditions, according to Sarah Moore, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM (Neurology), they can thrive in families.
They require a lot of physical activity and training, but they are frequently affectionate and excellent with kids and other animals. So before bringing a Portuguese water dog into the family, make sure you have the time to devote to these things!
According to Moore, the breed can occasionally be wary of strangers, but with the right socialization, they are content to allow strangers to pet them.
The intelligent Portuguese water dogs, like the poodle, are easily bored if you don’t keep them engaged. They are a very energetic dog who needs at least one hour of exercise each day. They benefit greatly from competition training for this additional reason. But no matter what you decide to do, making sure your dog is healthy and content should come first because they have a propensity to chew when they’re bored or angry. Your belongings will be chewed up when you get home from work if you leave your Portuguese water dog home alone for too long or don’t exercise him enough.
The four dogs owned by Delgado each have a job or a sport to keep them busy. Delgado runs alongside one of them, and her three-year-old Brinkley enjoys waking her up on the weekends by locating her slipper socks, climbing up on Delgado’s bed, and hanging the socks over her owner’s head.
Portuguese water dogs will require extensive obedience training, just like any other highly intelligent dog. Not only will it keep them mentally active, but it will also reduce some of their undesirable characteristics, such as the breed’s propensity to jump up to greet people or their infamous reputation as counter-surfers.
In homes with cats and other dogs, Portuguese water dogs do very well. They are a good option for households with other small animals because they have a low prey drive. Although they enjoy spending time with kids, they can be a little too rambunctious for very young ones.
Portuguese water dogs also do well in therapy or service work, and some of them receive training to become assistance dogs for the deaf or hard-of-hearing. They quickly pick up on barking when the phone rings or someone knocks on the door.
The two main considerations for housing a Portuguese water dog are mental and physical stimulation. They can easily adjust to apartment life as long as you take them for a daily run or game of fetch. Even better if you live in a home with a large, fenced backyard. And if there’s a lake or pool nearby, holy crap, they’re in heaven.
Have your dog examined by a veterinarian first if you’re thinking about competing in sports.
The dogs are usually safe to have off-leash or in the front yard with supervision because they have a very low prey drive and won’t likely run off after a squirrel. To prevent them from getting bored, it’s a great idea to provide a variety of toys. Giving them a variety of toys and using some gentle positive reinforcement training will help you quickly teach them which toys are safe for them to chew on.
Yup, theyre going to be a handful. Fun fact about Portuguese water dogs: They constantly grow new hair. If you don’t groom your Portuguese water dog every six to eight weeks, Delgado warns, they’ll end up looking like the sheep in Australia who wandered off for seven years and returned looking like a giant cotton ball.
To prevent that wavy (or curly) hair from matting up and clinging desperately to every twig and leaf it finds, you’ll brush them every other day in addition to the trims.
Additionally, to ensure that your dog’s hair doesn’t retain odors after swimming in a chlorinated pool, saltwater body, or lake with algae, you should give them a quick rinse right away.
Hip dysplasia can affect Portuguese water dogs just like it can other breeds. Delgado advises owners to wait until their dogs are 18 months or 2 years old to spay or neuter them in an effort to prevent hip issues.
According to some studies, some breeds of dogs can develop joint damage and other diseases before getting spayed or neutered in the first year. Before a Portuguese water dog’s growth plates are closed, spaying and neutering around the six-month mark can encourage a growth spurt, which can lead to joint problems, according to Delgado.
However, Portuguese water dogs have not been one of the breeds included in studies on delayed neutering, according to Theresa Entriken, DVM. According to a 2020 study, the majority of breeds can be neutered “without reference to a particular age.” “.
There is no simple solution, and pet owners should consult their veterinarian about the advantages and disadvantages of neutering their pet in relation to orthopedic issues, cancer, or other issues like urinary incontinence, according to Entriken.
Cataracts and progressive retinal atrophy, a recessive gene that causes night blindness and may result in total blindness, can also be problems in Portuguese water dogs. To determine whether your dog is a carrier of the gene or not, your veterinarian can perform a quick DNA test.
Michelle Beck, DVM, CCRT, CVA-Veterinarian at the Backlund Animal Clinic in Omaha, Neb., says that in addition to examining a dog’s response to light, one can also examine a dog’s ability to see under various lighting conditions. “Watching their pupils react to light and dark changes. One of the things I do with animals is set up a room with obstacles in different light settings and watch how they navigate those obstacles in bright light, then again in gradually lower light settings. ”.
Another fatal recessive gene, juvenile dilated cardiomyopathy is extremely rare but should be tested for by your veterinarian.
The Portuguese Water Dog Club of America, the recognized breed club, recommends that all new puppy owners have their veterinarians complete the recommended tests and screenings.
According to the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America, a monk who witnessed a dog with a “black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft” pulling a sailor from the water in 1297 is the first person to have described a dog that resembles our modern Portuguese water dog.
The dog thrived for centuries along the coasts of Portugal and Spain, and there are (possibly untrue) stories of the Spanish Armada using dogs as ship-to-ship messengers. As the number of fishermen decreased and their jobs were increasingly replaced by technology throughout the 19th century, the dog’s population steadily decreased until it was almost extinct by the 1930s.
Vasco Bensaude, a Portuguese shipping tycoon, turned this tide around in the 1930s by actively looking for the dogs in fishing communities with the goal of reviving the breed.
Two Americans named Deyanne and Herbert Miller, Jr. lived in the 1960s. brought the dogs to the U. S. , the first one a descendent of Bensaudes kennels. The Portuguese Water Dog Club of America was established in 1972, and the American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1981.
Do Portuguese water dogs bark a lot?
The Portuguese Water Dog doesn’t typically bark at home; instead, it only does so when it perceives a threat to the house or its pack. PWDs have a multi-octave voice, so you can’t help but notice them when they bark loudly and distinctively.
Halitosisin the Portuguese Water Dog
Portuguese Water Dogs are not the only breed with this issue, but it could still make them smell. When our dog was near the end of his life, we noticed that something offensive was coming from his mouth.
It smelled like something had died in there. So, in order to investigate further what was going on, we brought him to the veterinarian.
Our vet called this condition halitosis. Basically, this is the medical name for bad breath. In people, this typically results from neglecting to brush and floss, but we knew that our dog was experiencing something much more serious.
Our dog actually had an abscess on the side of his mouth, which turned out to be the case. It was present on the inside of his cheek. When the vet applied pressure to the abscess, pus was released. This did not go over well with our poor Portuguese Water Dog!
It took courage for that veterinarian to reach inside without getting his fingers bit off.
The veterinarian gave us some antibiotics before we left to treat the abscess and ensure that this issue wouldn’t recur. The veterinarian also mentioned a few additional causes of bad breath in Portuguese Water Dogs. Someof the common issues include:
Our ability to care for our Portuguese Water Dog allowed us to prevent the abscess from recurring. Only then did our puppy experience such serious breath problems.
DoesYour Portuguese Water Dog Have a Skin Issue?
Your Portuguese Water Dog may have a skin issue if you notice that he or she smells strongly and strangely. Even though our Portuguese Water Dog always smelled fantastic, there was one occasion when I noticed something especially strong upon returning from school.
It appeared almost as if someone intentionally moved the garbage into the sun so that it could ripen after they had vomited in the trash can.
It turns out this had nothing to do with vomit. The problem wasour Portuguese Water Dog. While I could not see the issue from the surface, I did notice that our poor baby’s hair was nearly completely matted and had a musty, stinky odor that had caused his fur to cake.
It turned out that our Portuguese Water Dog had seborrhea, a condition. As a result, something that resembled cheese began to accumulate on his skin. Our doctor provided us with a variety of cleaning supplies so we could keep him clean.
For the next few months, we followed this religiously. We tried to get him on an exercise schedule, gave him regular baths, and made sure he was always well-groomed. He wasn’t overweight, but we saw that his skin folds used to accumulate sebum. Therefore, we tried to eliminate them using cleaning and bathing.
This is how we were able to control the smell caused by our Portuguese Water Dog. Luckily, we only went through this ordeal once.
FAQ
Why do water dogs smell?
According to Brunning, the evaporation of moisture, which includes some of those compounds, is what causes the wet-dog smell. According to Brunning, the distinctive smell is a blend of scents that includes almond, fruit, honey, and mushrooms with hints of feces and sulfur.
How often should you bathe a Portuguese Water Dog?
The single, thick coat of the Portuguese Water Dog can be curly or wavy. They require regular bathing and brushing. This strong dog only needs to be bathed every other week to once every six weeks.
Do Portuguese Water Dogs shed a lot?
These dogs have no undercoat and do not shed. They receive either a “lion clip,” which involves shaving the face and hindquarters, or a “retriever clip,” which involves uniform hair cutting to about an inch. Black, white, or various brown shades make up the coat.
Do Portuguese Water Dogs like to cuddle?
Expect the PWD-Labrador Mix to enjoy cuddling up to you because Porties and Labradors are affectionate and eager to please.