The Spanish Water Dog (Perro de agua español) breed is used in Spain as a general-purpose sheepdog and guard. It is also used sometimes as a gundog and is skilled at retrieval from water.

The Spanish Water Dog (SWD) has strong genetic links to other water breeds such as the Portuguese Water Dog, The Poodle, the French Barbet and the Irish Water Spaniel.

Appearance

The SWD is a medium size, an athletic, robust dog that is slightly longer than tall. Their tails are usually docked in the US, but undocked tails are not a fault in conformation showing if the dog was bred in a non-docking country.

The head should be strong and carried with elegance. The skull is flat and the top is parallel with the top of the muzzle. The nose, eye-rims and paw pads are the same colour as the darkest part of the coat or darker. The eyes are expressive and set fairly wide apart. They should be hazel, chestnut or dark brown in colour, depending on the coat colour. The ears are set at medium height on the skull and are triangular.

Coat and colour

It has a distinctive curly coat which is woolly in texture and may form cords when long. The coat should not be clipped or groomed for aesthetic purposes. Instead, it should look entirely natural, as though it is not groomed at all. It should never be trimmed but sheared down at least once a year. SWD puppies are always born with curly hair.

SWD can be seen in a variety of colours. It may be solid black, beige, brown, or white; bicolour where the second colour is white; or particoloured. Tri-coloured dogs are strictly prohibited by the currently held (worldwide) standards for the breed as are black and tan or brown and tan colour combinations.

History

Portuguese and Spanish water dogs are clearly related and probably have a common ancestor. The SWD has been known by many other names such as “Perro Turco”, “Laneto”, “Perro Patero”, “Perro Rizado”, “Churro”, “Barbeta”, and, most recently, “Perro de Agua Español” (literally Spanish Dog of Water, i.e., Spanish Water Dog).

Originally there were three separated populations of SWD in Spain with somewhat different phenotypes and sizes. One of these populations was found in Northern Spain, in Asturias and Cantabria, these dogs were usually smaller and of a lighter colour, becoming a new breed 22 March 2011, the Cantabrian Water-Dog. The other group could be found in the marshes of western Andalusia, this type of dogs had coats made of long and thin cords. And finally, the largest group came from the southern Andalusian sierras, this type of dogs was the largest and strongest since were mainly used for herding. Today, the breed is well mixed and most SWD is well rounded and has a balanced of traits.

Historically, the SWDs were primarily used as herding dogs to move the flocks of sheep and goats from one pasture to another. The dogs were also called upon to work wherever a dog was required. For example, they were taught to work with fishermen as well as being taught to retrieve when hunting with the farmers.