Portuguese Water Dog
Portugal · 17–22.5 in tall · 35–55 lb · long curly coat
Next to the average dog it is grooming-heavy, playful, mentally demanding, and high-energy. Day to day it sheds very little.
Find out if a Portuguese Water Dog suits youA good fit if…
- you have young children
- there is already a dog at home
- you would rather not vacuum daily
- people come and go a lot
Think twice if…
- your days are mostly indoors
- you do not want a grooming routine
- the dog would be alone and unoccupied
Trait profile
Scored 1–5. A blank means the trait is not recorded for this breed.
About the breed
The Portuguese Water Dog (PWD; Portuguese: cão de água IPA: [ˈkɐ̃w dɨ ˈaɣwɐ]), also known as the Algarvian Water Dog (cão de água algarvio), or Portuguese Fishing Dog (cão pescador português), is a breed of dog that originated from the Algarve region of Portugal. From there the breed expanded to all around Portugal's coast, where they were taught to herd fish into fishermen's nets, retrieve lost tackle or broken nets, and act as couriers from ship to ship, or ship to shore. Portuguese Water Dogs rode in fishing trawlers as they worked their way from the Atlantic waters of Portugal to the waters off the coast of Iceland fishing for cod. The Portuguese Water Dog is a fairly rare breed; only 36 Portuguese Water Dogs were entered for Great Britain's Crufts competition in 2013.— English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
