Portuguese Water Dogs: A Brief History.

The Portuguese water dog originated along the coast of Portugal, where it was used to assist fisherman. A dog that helps fisherman? Yup.

The Portuguese water dog actually has webbed feet and would jump into the water and “herd” fish into the nets as well as retrieve gear for the fisherman.

The Portuguese refer to the breed as a Cao de Agua, which does not mean water cow, like I originally thought. It means ‘water dog.’ The Portuguese also refer to Portuguese water dogs as ‘fishing dogs.’ At times, they refer to their wives as water cows. Okay, maybe I made that one up.

There are many noted dog historians (Just kidding, there are no noted dog historians) but there are dog historians who think the breed goes as far back as 700 B.C. The Portuguese water dog originated in Asia, where it was used as a herding dog. The dogs travelled across continents with people as they migrated and ended up in Portugal in the eighth century.