The Different Looks of the Portuguese Water Dog

However, the objective of this page is to demonstrate the different looks of the Portuguese Water Dog, as accepted in the show ring in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. There are different variations on a theme for this breed which is "acceptable" in the US and Canada, but not in the show ring in the aforementioned countries.

Coat type

This bitch, shown at left, is Fancy, one of the top winning PWD's in Australia. She is of traditional coat type and colour - black and wavy.

As you become more experienced with the PWD, you notice that the reality is that coat types vary from the very very tight curly, to the almost straight. It is important the wavy coat is not blow dried straight and presented looking like a Newfoundland. The coat must be allowed to be presented with its natural wave.

The interesting thing with curly puppies, is they will often look like straggily wavy puppies for a long time until their adult coat comes through. I like to shave off curly boys completely at 12 weeks of age to allow a stronger coat to come through earlier. Seeing a wavy and a curlier pwd pup side by side at a show, it is quite likely you won't be able to tell the difference in coat type. But these differences will become more apparent as the pups age.

Sometimes it can take 3-4 years for the curls to come through properly, confusing both owner and breeder as to whether the dog is a wavy or a curly! And just to confuse people more, the dog can have a curly head, yet a wavy front. The key to deciding which coat type the dog is, is to look at the lustre of the coat. Curly coats will not shine, while wavy coats do.

Colour

• black
• black and white (less than 30% white)
• brown
• brown and white (less than 30% white)
• white (100% white)

As you can imagine, the colours can be stunning. The dogs with white markings, are marked along the traditional lines known as "Irish Markings". This is the same genetic pattern as which boxers, for example, are marked with white.

This photo taken at left is of Bear (Ch Bluegrace Embarcadico), a curly black and white dog. Notice that while he has only a small amount of white, it is placed along the lines as you would expect with Irish markings.

Primo, a stunning top winning dog from the US, is shown here at left, with the more pronounced Irish Markings.

In America, there has been some different variations to coat colour, with ticking being seen in a small number of dogs, and "parti-colours" allowed. A parti colour is a dog with between 30% and 99% white. This is not an acceptable colour scheme in most parts of the world for the show ring, but they do make lovely pets (just make sure they aren't deaf).

One of the most famous white pwd's in recent times is a dog from Portugal known as Booguie. This is his picture shown here above.

The Fading Gene

The risk with the browns is that when bred to blacks, you can then get the fading gene seen very early in black dogs. Some people claim this colour is "silver", but the reality is that it is a faded black. Brown dogs also tend to carry a lighter eye, which can then replicate itself when bred to black dogs providing puppies with a yellowish eye tinge.

Other colour variations