Portuguese Water Dog In 413 CE, the Visigoths invaded Iberia before being settled in Aquitania north of the Pyrenees in 418, ultimately extending their rule to most of Iberia after 470 CE. A Portuguese Water Dog is first described in 1297 in a monk’s account of a drowning sailor who was pulled from the sea by a dog with a "black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft". These theories explain how the Poodle and the Portuguese Water Dog may have developed from the same ancient genetic pool. At one time the Poodle was
Poodle and the American Kennel Club place standard and miniature sizes in the Non-sporting Group, and the toy size in the Toy Group. The United Kennel Club places the miniature and toy in the Companion Group and the standard poodle in the Gundog Group. Unlike most dogs which have double coats, poodles have a single layer coat (no undercoat is present) composed of dense, curly fur that sheds minimally. They could be considered hypoallergenic (though not completely allergen free). The poodle does shed, but instead of the fur coming off the dog, it becomes tangled in the surrounding hair. This can