Portuguese Water Dog
Learn about the temperament and personality of the Portuguese Water Dog. Discover what he's like to live with, his traits and characteristics and how he generally behaves. And look at lots of Portuguese Water Dog photos.
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Portuguese Water Dog Temperament
This intensely loyal breed was bred to be a seafaring working dog. He worked on fishing boats, retrieving things from the water, carrying messages between boats, herding fish, and even guarding the catch from seals. He is highly energetic and tireless, and as a family pet, will need lots of activity to keep him happy. He is exceptionally intelligent and takes well to obedience training. Today, the Portuguese Water Dog excels at obedience, agility, flyball, rally, herding, and drafting competitions. And as you might guess, he loves to play in the water. This is a dog who is happiest when he gets rigorous exercise each and every day. If he does not get enough exercise, he will get into mischief. The breed does well with children who know how to behave around dogs, but parents should supervise, as this is a big dog who plays hard. He makes a good watch dog, because he is big, with a loud, deep bark, and is cautious with strangers. He bonds easily with his family and becomes protective. He thrives on and demands human attention and will not do well if left alone for hours at a time. The Portuguese Water Dog is said to possess a unique sense of humor, and so should his humans, as these independent, spirited dogs stay quite active well into their senior years.
Portuguese Water Dog Training
The Portuguese Water Dog is intelligent and quite easy to train. He learns new commands quickly at an above average rate.
Portuguese Water Dog Shedding
The Portuguese Water Dog sheds practically no hair at all. You'll virtually never find a hair in your home!
Portuguese Water Dog Grooming
Pet coat (less work): Cut his coat short every few months and then it only needs to be brushed every so often.
Show coat (more work): Professionally groom his coat to the breed standard. Brush it daily.
Adopt a Portuguese Water Dog
Portuguese Water Dog Photos
Rating: Ease of training
Tells you how easy or difficult a breed is to train.
A higher rating means the breed is easier to train, a lower rating means the breed is harder to train.
An easy to train breed require less time and patience to train.
Rating: Intelligence
Tells you how intelligent a breed is in terms of how quickly it can learn commands from humans. A higher rating means the breed will learn your commands faster (and is therefore generally considered to be more intelligent), while a lower rating means the breed will learn your commands more slowly (and is therefore generally considered to be less intelligent).
Keep in mind that this is only one way to measure a dog's intelligence and a low rating might still mean the breed is highly intelligent in other ways.
Rating: Shedding
Tells you how much hair the breed sheds. The higher the rating the more hair the breed sheds.
Rating: Watchdog
Tells you how good the breed is at being a watchdog and raising the alarm when a stranger approaches. A higher rating means the breed will bark vigorously to warn you of a stranger's presence on your property. A low rating means the breed probably won't bark much if a stranger enters your property.
Rating: Guard dog
Tells you how good the breed is at being a guard dog due to the appearance, size, and strength of the breed. A breed with a high guard dog rating will make an intruder think twice before stepping foot on your property.
Rating: Popularity
Tells you how popular the breed is in terms of ownership. A higher rating means that more people own the breed. The more popular a breed is the easier it is to find and purchase one because there are more breeders breeding it.
Rating: Size
Tells you how large or small the breed is. A lower rating means the breed is smaller and a higher rating means the breed is larger. It gives you a quick idea of how physically large or small the breed is compared with all the other breeds.
Rating: Agility
Tells you how agile the breed is. A higher rating means the breed is fast and nimble on its feet while a lower rating means the breed is heavier and slower on its feet.
Rating: Good with kids
Tells you how good the breed is with children. A higher rating means the breed is good with children. Note: all breeds are generally good with kids when they're raised with them.
