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Your Pet, Our Passion.

Spanish Water Dog

A robust, medium-sized dog, the Spanish Water Dog has a curly, woolly coat that can be corded when long, or kept clipped short. They are strong and muscular and as their name suggests, love getting wet and are well suited to swimming and retrieving from water.

Lifespan
10 – 14 years
Weight
Adult males weigh around 18-22kg and females 14-18kg
Height
Adult males are 44-50cm tall and females 40-46cm tall
Colours
Solid black, white or brown, or black and white or brown and white
Size
Medium
UK Kennel Club Groups
Gundog
The need-to-know
  • Dogs suitable for experienced owners
  • Extra training required
  • Generally healthy breed
  • Enjoys active walks
  • Enjoys more than two hours of walking a day
  • Medium dog
  • Some drool
  • Requires grooming every other day
  • Quiet dog
  • Welcomes everyone happily
  • Could have issues with unknown dogs but gets along with known dogs
  • Gets along with other pets with training
  • Great family dog
  • Needs a large garden
  • Can live in semi-rural areas
  • Can be left occasionally with training
Spanish Water Dog

The Spanish Water Dog can suffer from: 
- Hip dysplasia 
- Progressive retinal atrophy which is an inherited disorder where part of the eye degenerates and wastes away which can result in blindness  
- Glaucoma which is a painful condition where the pressure in the eye builds up 
- Ear infections 

Priority Kennel Club health schemes and testing: 
- Hip dysplasia scheme 
- Eye testing for pectinate ligament abnormality to find out how likely the dog is to develop glaucoma. 
- DNA testing for progressive rod cone degeneration- progressive retinal atrophy which tests whether or not a dog has the potential to be affected by this condition.

Personality

The Spanish Water Dog is bright, intelligent, friendly and even-tempered, and they love to work. With gainful employment via training, and a variety of dog sports or activities, the SWD is an excellent, active and fun companion dog. Although they may bond to one person in the family more than others, this is a gregarious dog who likes his family group to stay together, probably as a result of his herding ancestry!

Did You Know?

  • Although the Spanish Water Dog has existed as a type of working dog in rural Spain for some time, as breed they have only been internationally recognised very recently. Efforts to establish them as a pedigree breed began in the 1970s, and the Spanish Kennel Club accepted them in the mid-1980s. 
  • There is also some confusion as to which breed group the Spanish Water Dog belongs in, with the UK Kennel Club classifying them as Gundogs, but the American Kennel Club placing them in the Herding group.