:: History

The Perro De Agua Espanol isa very old breed that was used in the Southern Iberian Peninsula as a herding dog. We have written confirmation of this dated 1,110. The breed was recovered from the unknown by Antonio Garcia Perez, who is considered the Father of the Breed.Antonio, who is a grandson of shepherds, an ecologist and English language teacher is the author of the official breed standard.

When Antonio discovered the breed he was only a young boy, whose grandparents worked daily with their dogs ‘Tarzan and Mora.’

Today his grandparents are well into their eighties, and throughout their lives have used Perros De Agua Espanol to herd and protect their flocks of sheep, lambs, goats, cattle and pigs.

These dogs have been worked in the same ways for the last 300 years and throughout this time dog skeletons have been found with the exact same physical structure as the dogs of today.

In the sea ports of Algeciras, Cadiz, Malaga, and the inlet port of Sevilla, the Perros were used to moor ships and boats by diving into the sea and towing a floating buoy tied to the end of a rope, to the waiting deck hands. There are many stories of these events, but unfortunately, with the modernisation of the ports, this wonderrful work of the Perros De Agua Espanol is no longer needed.

There are accounts that the dogs of Sevilla moved north to the ports of Santander and then into the Vasq country where many stories can be remembered about how the dogs used to work with the fishermen, performing tasks such as carrying lines from one boat to another, diving into the sea and retrieving stunned fish that had escaped from the nets. Most of the fishermen had these dogs with them at all times, entrusting them to guard their catch on the harbour side.

They are great retrievers and will retrieve almost anything from anywhere. They still today guard and herd flocks of sheep and goats in Andulucia just as they did hundreds of years ago. They are used all over the world as search and rescue dogs and have found many bodies after many natural disasters such as earthquakes, mud slides and cave ins. They are also used by many European police forces to detect drugs and explosives. On a lighter note, they have also been known to work in the travelling circus! Many people say that the Perro De Agua Espanol only lacks the ability to speak!

The Perro De Agua is also used as a gundog, but when they have a full coat you have to take care that they don't get caught in the undergrowth. This is because they have been known to get so entangled that they cannot move.

Antonio has tirelessly promoted this breed all over the world for the last 25 years with the help of his devoted family. He appears in many books and videos published around the world, and has recently appeared with his youngest daughter Anai on a mainstream TV channel in Spain with his dogs. Approximately 95% of all pedigree Perros De Agua Espanol will have roots back to his kennel 'DE UBRIQUE'. He loves nothing more than to play with his dogs, and he says that every day he learns something new from them. Perros De Agua Espanol can do many tasks including surfing, retrieving surfboards with people on them, climbing trees, retrieving car keys from the car ignition, diving underwater, climbing almost vertical ladders, retrieving objects by name, and even starting a car engine! They love nothing more than making their owners happy.

In conclusion, we love this multi-talented breed for its usefulness, and we believe that this usefulness should be the basis of all work with these dogs in the future. To keep the breed strong and unique we must continually play and work with our dogs.