WE PLANT THE "SEEDS OF IDEAS" IN DOG OWNERS MINDS - THESE IDEAS EVENTUALLY BLOSSOM INTO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DOG BEHAVIOUR - Sally Hopkins

PORTUGUESE WATER DOG (With grateful thanks to Chad Einbinder who took these wonderful photos and Sue Zgol, from Denver, Colorado, USA who supplied the text & recommended the web links)

Portuguese Water Dog (PWD) water tasks endeavor to duplicate historical tasks the PWD would have undertaken as a contributing crew member on a Portuguese fishing vessel. Tasks that were attributed to the breed included -

Retrieving overboard objects
Carrying messages between boats or back to shore
Swimming fishing floats into place
Guarding the boats, nets and catch when in port.

In the water trials for the PWD held in the United States, the dog -

Retrieves float lines and other articles both in the water and on shore, returning to the working boat or shore depending on the performance level
Swims with its handler
Retrieves underwater objects
Carries messages between boats
Sets fishing floats in an open body of water
Tows fishing nets between boats.

Here you can see Sue with her amazing "once in a lifetime dog" - International Champion Tradewind's Lunar Eclipse, OA, AXJ, CWDX, call name Yeager - launching off the boat to a double directed retrieve.

Yeager's mother - Tradewind's Fantasia OA, NAJ, CWD, call name Abby - has taken the buoy ball from the handler on a boat and is swimming to the white marker 50 feet from the boat and delivering the ball at least 10 feet past the white marker in open water, dropping the buoy ball there and leaving it in open water. The dog must return to the handler on the boat without the buoy ball.

Finally, in this picture a float line was placed on the shore while Abby was with her handler on a working boat 60 feet out from the shore and could not see where the float was being placed. Her handler sent Abby to swim to the shore and find the float line and then swim out and returned it to them in the boat.

For further information about Portuguese Water Dogs Sue recommends that you browse through the web site of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America.

Click here if you would like to contact Sue for further information on this fascinating breed.

This web site has been written by Sally Hopkins (unless the author of the web page is stated otherwise).

Dog Games Ltd