Puppies

As a small preservation breeder, we only occasionally have puppies. Our next planned litter will be bred in February-March 2025.  This breeding will be our GCHB CH SeaIsle Doctor Who Dat Pepper CGC TKN to CH Toraq’s Oarsmen of the Laguna CGC TKN.  All health testing listed in the PWDCA Health & Litter Database. You are welcome to contact us about upcoming litters using our contact page. We also suggest you check with other Northern California breeders whose contact information can be found at the official Portuguese Water Dog Club of Northern California website.

There are quite a few breeders of Portuguese Water Dogs but not all breeders are alike.

When looking for a breeder, look for someone whose goal is to preserve the breed for the future.  A preservation breeder seeks to keep intact the traits, characteristics, and hereditary factors which make our breed distinct.  These breeders have studied and researched our foundation dogs and understand the health aspects of our breed.  They are interesting in breeding dogs sound of mind and body that meet the physical standard of our breed and can successfully do the jobs they were created to do.  This does not mean your new puppy has to go out and be shown or win titles in performance events or be bred.  This simply means your puppy should look and act like a Portuguese Water Dog.

The Portuguese Water Dog Standard states the following which should apply to your puppy/dog.

“A dog of exceptional intelligence, it obeys any orders given by its master with facility and apparent pleasure. It is obedient with those who look after it and with those for whom it works.  An animal of spirited disposition, independent, brave and very resistant to fatigue, it has a hard, penetrating and attentive expression, splendid sight and fair nose.”

This also means Portuguese Water Dogs ae not for every household!  These are real working dogs and should have structured obedience classes for the first 12-18 months of its life at a minimum.  PWDs are intelligent and high on trainability which makes it quite easy and enjoyable to train if you find a good, positive trainer.  IF you are not interested in putting the time and energy into training and working these wonderful dogs, then please find another breed.  Because they are intelligent, if you don’t invest time and energy in training and working them then they will find ways to train you and/or get into trouble.

Some important facts to consider before acquiring a PWD are:

1. Make sure the breeder with whom you work is reputable and has done all the parents’ health testing.  To check which tests are required, go to Portuguese Water Dogs Club of America’s Heath Tests page  where you can look up information about those required tests.  For a breeder to be listed on the referral list, they must be club members and abide by the Code of Ethics.  They must also do the appropriate testing on the breeding pair before allowing the breeding to occur.

2. Be prepared to meet and visit the reputable breeder at their home.  Be prepared to answer many questions about you, your family, your lifestyle, expectations and needs for a dog.  Realize that you probably will not be able to choose your own puppy.  Reputable breeders do multiple evaluations of each puppy.  These allow them to match the best possible puppy to your situation, or let you know that there is not an appropriate puppy for you in a litter.  They want a life long match for each puppy and family!

3. Reputable breeders do not sell sight-unseen or take orders for upcoming litters.  They are not selling a loaf of bread but a living, breathing, bundle of fun that can’t always meet the vision you may have created.  Trust this breeder, they will match the best puppy to your family.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions of the breeder. You’ll find they enjoy talking about their dogs and should want to mentor and educate you about the breed.  Check out the Portuguese Water Dogs Club of America’s Before You Buy Section for questions to ask breeders.

5. Verify the information you receive from the breeder.  A reputable breeder will give you copies of health certificates, contracts and complete information on the dog and bitch they bred, why they bred them, and what they hope to accomplish/get out of the breedings.

6. A reputable breeder generally shows in conformation and/or performance events and their dogs are clean and live in a clean environment.  Check out the home you visit and see if all the dogs are kept in sanitary conditions and are well maintained.  This is a labor of love for a reputable breeder, they are preserving the breed, not exploiting it for profit.

BEWARE of breeders only in it for the money. 

1. They tend to have fancy websites where you can pick out your puppy and ship to destinations anywhere, all without even meeting you.  They also claim to health test but usually only do a few of the tests, if any, and often breed their animals before they have reached maturity (2 years)

2. They may also have canned statements like “I don’t show my dogs because they are my fur babies, and I don’t want to keep them in crates.”

3. They won’t have pedigrees or registered names of dogs listed on their websites and have limited knowledge about the background of their own dogs.

     They may have plenty of photos of their dogs without real information about them.

      They may have multiple breeds they are breeding because this is a business to them and not for the betterment of any of the breeds they produce.

4.They may well advertise they acquired their dogs from another country, especially Portugal.    Several of these for-profit breeders are well known in the US and reputable breeders won’t sell to them.

 Note: Not all dogs imported from other countries fall into the hands of these folks, reputable breeders do import from reputable breeders in other countries.

5.Be very cautious as there are many scams that will have you place a deposit on what is actually a non-existant litter.  It is very important that you meet the breeder and their dogs, discuss contracts, temperament, and expectations prior to placing a deposit on any dog.

6. Stay away from sites that sell puppies as brokers over the internet.  These pups generally come from large commercial puppy mills in the Midwest and are NOT health tested and may not even be purebred in spite of the fact that they offer AKC registration papers.

These points should give you a good basis to start your search and find the right dog for you in addition to a great breeder who will be there for you for the life of your dog.