Hi all!

My wife and I are considering buying a Spanish Water dog. I've got a basic question for anyone who would care to help me:

should I buy it here in the UK or in Spain? Common sense tells me that I should buy it in Spain. After all the breed has its origins in South Spain and there don't seem to be many breeders here. In addition, I tend to travel to Spain quite a lot as I am Spanish ;) However, because of the so-called "6-month rule"  I fear that, if I end up buying him in Spain, I will not be able to export it into the Uk until he is several months old, so maybe I should try to get hold of one in the UK.

Can anybody help?
Thanks in advance and regards!!

Alex

first of all i got 2 swd,one i got from diane who will see this post and will write too.

you will have to wait up 9 months for a pup to come into the uk on the pet passport,or if you are going to have a old dog that had they shoots you may not have to wait as long.
i be awear some of the breeder out there dont not hip and eyes test like we do in the uk before breeding,
at lease if you get one  from the uk you have the pup at 7 weeks to start socialzing it this breed dose need alot of this and train the way you would like in tto be bought up.
i could go on all night and it get later.if you email i give you phone number to chat about the breed

I think they are a wonderful breed, dont own one, but have judged several in IR classes over here. It really depends on what you want a SWD for, and how easy the 9mths wait in Spain might be for the dog. Having judged quite a few of them over here I have found the breed to be sound and have yet to come across a poor specimen. All depends on what you want but go look at a few at the bigger shows.

:d  Thanks bazb, that's nice to hear!!!

If you are going to buy from the UK ensure that the sire and dam are both hipscored, eye tested and gonioscopy tested! 

Myself and 3 friends imported them into the country 13 years ago from Antonio who owns the well known Ubrique kennel.  All of my dogs come from that kennel.  I now have one of his Champion males that has had 2 litters in this country.  Terri has kept a pup from his first litter and my parents have kept one from my first litter by him.  Up to now they are coming on brilliant although it is still early days.

Make sure too that you meet their parents!  The SWD as I'm sure that you are aware can be wary of people.  I've worked hard to try and get the correct character in my lines and with Antonio's help I've got there.

Most breeders charge around £750 and it shouldn't matter whether they are champion bred or not.  I only charge this even though my males a champion.

Good luck in your search.

Hope you don't mind me saying but Bullmastiff's and SWD's are very different and I would NOT advise getting pups at the same time!

Thanks everybody for your advice.

It looks clear now that if we want to own a SWD we'd better buy it in the UK. As Spanishwaterdog has pointed out, until very recently I was very enthusiastic about Bullmastiffs (and still am) but my wife doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm. This explains why at this stage our knowledge of the breed is very limited. In fact, other than a few scattered details we know very little about the breed.  I would like to know threethings before I continue carrying on my research: do SWD require a lot of exercise? Are they heavy shedders? (my understanding is that they aren't but would like clarification of this). How do these dogs cope with being left alone for a few hours (i.e. 4/5 max)? Not every single day of the week, mind you. I spend a great deal of time at home but occasionally I need to go to central London for work.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Alex

They do not shed.  They can cope with being alone ONLY and I really mean ONLY if you are willing to put in all of your time with them when you are at home.

They love their family and will do anything and everything to please you.  They are very intelligent so will pick up something that they are shown straight away.  Remember that whilst they are a puppy if you show them something that you don't want them to do as an adult it is your fault, because once they've learnt something it's very hard to train it out of them :d

You will at least have to do beginners obedience with them.  This is more for the socialisation of the breed rather than anything else because if they are not socialised with people they can be wary of them.

You don't have to walk them miles but they do like to do something that stetches their mind.  They adore retrieving so a goog ball throwing at the park keeps them happy.  They excel in obedience, agility, flyball and they of course love to swim :d

If you really are interested in them there's Discover Dogs at Earls Court in London November 12th to 13th.  Unfortunately I won't be there this year as my girl is due on the 16th.  You can go and meet a few of them and chat to their owners.

You are also more than welcome to e-mail me on:  

spanishwaterdogs@supanet.com

That's really wonderful news "Spanishwaterdog". I was planning to attend Discover Dogs with my wife in November. From your message I gather that you should have puppies available by mid-January, which is precisely the time in which my wife and I would like to take the puppy home. I know of only a few Internet sites where to look at info about the breed (mostly in Spain) and they confine to describing the breed standard. This is ok when you read it for the first time but is of not much use for someone willing to look into the breed in more detail. And the same goes for mainstream books, if they make any reference to the SPW at all!!! So, can you recommend any book where the breed is discussed in greater detail?

I very much appreciate your help!

Alex

I found an American published book on ebay, not a lot of in depth stuff on the breed, but lots of advice on keeping and training them.

Hi

If you go to Amazon.co.uk, they sell the only SWD book, it costs around £10.50 although you may be able to get a used copy cheaper, it is an American book but Diane has contributed to it,and there are some nice pictures of her and her dogs, also there is the SWD club website www.spanishwaterdogclub.co.uk this site is still quite new but will give you a list of breeders in the UK,another good site is www.ariosa-swds.com again an american site but it gives you info on the breed including coat care.
I will be at D.Dogs on Sunday 13th Nov with my 2 cream girls, hope to see you there.
Jenny B

Thanks, Bazb and JennyB.

The more I read about the SWD the more convinced I am it is the right dog for us. I am intrigued to know about "Diane", who has been mentioned by two forum participants, from which I gather she must be an expert on the breed :)

If anyone can think of anything important I should know (e.g are they inclined to bark?, etc. etc.) please speak up!!

Thanks!! :))

yes they do bark only to guard the house,car ect they do guard their owners as well,even little tangle all of 4 1/2 month will guard over her food from the other fcr,gollie will protect me all the time.but every loyal dogs to their owners
diane is spainwaterdog for the other post

Oh! It's good to know who Diane is, thanks! :-o

Diane/Spanishwaterdog: do you have any photographs of your SWDs posted on the Net?

I don't know about the nice photo's of me Jenny :d  If you call scruffiest clothes, no make up etc. well then they are nice!!  Some nice ones of Dilita though, one of the orig. SWD's in this country and of my dad :d

Both Terri and Jenny have photo's of their dogs on this site.  If you go on the home page and do a search for SWD's there's come up.  Another really good site is Wanda Sooby's, Estrellana, tells you a lot about the beginnings of the breed in this country etc. and some nice photo's.#

A really good European site I think is "Zoracco"  hopefully I've spelt it right and has really interesting health details etc. of the breed.  I would definitely recommend for you to look there.  If you do a google search it will come up.

Thanks Diane ,that's really helpful. I will check this out as soon as I can and share my thoughts with you (and the rest) if you don't mind :)

Actually the site is www.zorrazo.com and Dianes right it is good, I found another one the other day that has a database of all or nearly all SWD's,their pedigrees,offspring etc is good for filling in any gaps you may have, La Perrera Flamenca Kennel  www.users.skynet.be/fa394898/ I have put mine on there and used it when setting up my Pedigree Assistant database recently.

best wishes

Jenny

Thanks JennyB. I will check that out as soon as I can. :) At this rate I'm gonna be overwhelmed by such a great deal of info:-)

Regards,

Alex