Other Names: cão de água, português, cão de água algarvio.

The Portuguese Water Dog is a breed of dog. It is classified as a working dog by the AKC. Portuguese Water Dogs are originally from the Portuguese region of the Algarve, from where 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.

In Portuguese, the breed is called cão de água (IPA: [ˈkɐ̃w dɨ ˈaɡwɐ]; literally ‘dog of water’). In Portugal, the dog is also known as the Algarvian Water Dog (cão de água algarvio), or Portuguese Fishing Dog (cão pescador português). cão de água de pêlo ondulado is the name given to the wavy-haired variety, and cão de água de pêlo encaracolado is the name for the curly-coated variety.

The Portuguese Water Dog is a fairly rare breed; only 36 Portuguese Water Dogs were entered for Britain’s Crufts competition in 2013. Though some breeders claim they are a hypoallergenic dog breed, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that hypoallergenic dog breeds exist. Their non-shedding qualities have made them more popular in recent years. The Portuguese Water Dog has recently gained more fame by being the chosen breed of US President Barack Obama, who has two of them, Bo and Sunny. The Obama family chose Sunny for the breed’s comparatively hypoallergenic nature, while Bo was given to them by Senator Ted Kennedy.

History

In ancient times

In 1297 in a monk’s account of a drowning sailor who was pulled from the sea by a dog with a “black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft”.

These theories explain how the Poodle and the Portuguese Water Dog may have developed from the same ancient genetic pool. At one time the Poodle was a longer-coated dog, as is one variety of the Portuguese Water Dog. It is said that the current day Poodle, Kerry Blue Terrier, and Irish Water Spaniel are possibly ancestors of the “water dog”.

Modern history

The PWD was a breed on the verge of extinction when, during the 1930s, Vasco Bensaude, a wealthy Portuguese shipping magnate, began to seek out fishermen’s dogs for use in a breeding program to re-establish the breed. Bensaude’s kennel was named Algarbiorum, and his most famous dog was Leão (1931–1942), a very “type-y” (that is, standard-conformant) fisherman’s stud dog, who was bred to so many different females that about half of the pedigreed Portuguese Water Dogs in existence can trace their lineage back to him. Bensaude was aided by two Portuguese veterinarians, Dr. Francisco Pinto Soares and Dr. Manuel Fernandes Marques. His work was carried on by Conchita Cintron de Castelo Branco, to whom he gave his last 17 PWDs and all his archives.

Dr. António Cabral was the founder of the Avalade kennels in Portugal. Ch. Charlie de Avalade (Charlie), a brown-coated dog, and C. B. Baluarte de Avalade (Balu) were two of his many famous PWDs. He registered his first PWD in 1954 after Bensaude had pioneered the re-establishment of the breed in Portugal. Cabral worked with Carla Molinari, Deyanne Miller, Sonja Santos and others to establish PWDs in the US. The “Mark of Cabral” is a triangular shape of different colour/textured hair, usually 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) from the base of the tail.

Deyanne Miller is the person most responsible for the rise of the PWD in America. In 1972, the Millers, along with 14 others, formed the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America, Inc. (PWDCA). She worked with dogs from both the Cintron and Cabral lineages to establish a stable genetic pool of PWDs in the US at her Farmion kennels. Another early US breeder of PWDs was the actor Raymond Burr.