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[quote=Anonymous]We have a Portuguese Water Dog (PWD, or portie). I know a few people asked/mentioned them on this thread.

Our PWD is three years old, and we have a one-year-old child.

The good: non-shedding, extremely affectionate, fun personality. Seriously, I KNOW my dog has a sense of humor. I love him so much and can't imagine my life without him.

The bad: I wouldn't recommend for first-timers with a dog. PWDs are high energy and require a fair amount of exercise. Non-shedding = grooming bills (my dog's haircut costs 2x as much as mine!). Especially when they are young, they are very mouthy dogs. There were very few pieces of furniture in my house that our PWD didn't sink his teeth into the first year I had him.

We have had some issues with biting, but he was not fixed until about 6 months ago. Since then, he's calmed down.

He also barks a lot. He's a pretty good guard dog, always alert to the neighborhood noises. This, of course, is both good and bad (he woke us up 2-3 times last night and can't stand it when the neighbor is revving his engine).

PWDs are also very jumpy dogs. We had to work hard to train ours not to jump on us in greeting every time we came home. In general, you need to devote some time to training them. They are smart dogs but need direction.

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