Why we got a Portuguese Water Dog
Cocoa was the first Portuguese Water Dog I ever knew. The first time that I met him, my daughter had brought him to my home. At that time, she worked for the family that owned him as a personal assistant. Cocoa would gleefully follow me around the house, and he became a buddy. A few months later we house sat him for a few days. I had never heard about the breed before, and we were smitten. That was about 2003.
A few years went by, and my doctor prescribed a dog. “Been there, done that!” was the cry of my wife, and I could relate. We had a beautiful black lab for 13 years while our two daughters were growing up. We would disregard this aspect of my high blood pressure prescription, at least for the foreseeable future.
Months went by, and circumstances changed. My daughter had developed breast cancer a month before her planned wedding in Southern France. She had a swift lumpectomy, and then she would be going onto chemotherapy in California after her wedding. She insisted she would need something to look forward to on returning to California, and I decided that a dog would fill this need. She would be living at our house for a while during the chemo, with her French husband, and a dog would suit her while on chemo and fulfill my health needs as well.
When we returned from the wedding near Valence,, France, I started to look for a Portuguese Water Dog. There were not many for sale anywhere, but eventually, I found a litter that was born early August 2005. The breeder was Toraq in Citrus Heights Ca.
Portuguese Water Dog Goji
As a puppy he was an extremely adorable adorable dog. He had boundless energy and needed constant attention.
For the first year or so he was mouthy. Some important clothing was destroyed. Extremely devoted and loyal, he Did notlick much, nor bark. He seemed to need to go into the water twice a day, and fortunately we lived on a beach.
At the time of this writing he is almost five years old, and he is settled down from those early mouthey years. His job is to herd people. He keeps all the people together. The “mouthiness” is wired into their breed ; must be from pulling old style nets or similar. Bred to keep the crew on the boat together, if one of the group goes into the store he stops like a fire-hydrant to make sure that is ok. And part of the group may have just joined you guys, yet “where is she?”.
We taught him to really like to fetch the ball. But he is very particular about which ball. The balls sold by PetSmart, assorted colors are best. Where I go on the beach with him he tends to put the balls into the water (a reverse fetch game) so the PetSmart balls do not work there for long. He’s been OK with tennis ball play.
His diet has been Prairie raw meat patty one late each day, Biljack kibble, raw marrow bones, Biljack biscuits, and an assortment of other treats. I’ve soaked unsalted green beans in steak juice with initial success. He’s up to 67 pounds after moving from the beach so I want to develop some healthy food for him.
Goji can go anywhere in the house. Non-shedding and clean, we allow him on our bedroom pillows. It’s not like he cleans himself much, hardly ever, but the portluguse water dog coat does not let dirt stay on for long. His vigorous shake is his way of cleaning.