Things you need to know about a Portuguese Water Dog:
A
Portuguese Water Dog is not for everyone.
They are a breed that wants to be with you and do things with you all the
time. They must be crated when you cannot keep an eye on them at least until they are two years of age as if left un attended
and loose they will find things to entertain themselves. This is not limited to but may include chewing shoes, couches, furniture
and posibilly even window sills.
They are very devoted to their owner and family. If raised with consistancy, direction
and dicipline they grow to become wonderful dogs that have a desire to please you.
There are several health issues
in the breed some of which we have testing for so that we can avoid producing the problem.
First is Gm-1 or Storage
disease. We have a dna test available. Second is Hip Dysplasia. We x-ray all breeding dogs prior to being bred for this.
Now just because you get a dog whos parrents have been x-ray clear of hip dysplasia does not 100 percent guarantee that your
pup will not become affected it just lessens the chance. Dogs that Pass ofa can still produce hip dysplasia the same as dysplastic
dogs can produce dogs that do not have hip dysplasia. This is why we encourage you to have all dogs x-rayed for hip dysplasia
at 2 years of age. Pra. or Progressive Retinal Atrophy. We have a DNA marker to test for this which allows us to breed
dogs that are not affected. Carriers will not be affected with this disease but if bred must be bred to dogs that are clear
of the disease so that the offspring will have no chance of being affected. Addisons disease Can occur in the breed.
We do not currently have a test for it. Cardiomyopathy can also be found in the breed. We are working on finding a test
for this but to date none is available. It is believed at this point to be a recessive gene that causes it therefore it is
important to know where it is if at all in the pedigrees prior to breeding in order to lesson the chances of producing it.
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