Portuguese Water Dog Update
January 21st, 2009
Our PWD’s bring us so much joy, I can’t think of a better choice for Obama to get for his girls. Their personalities are really blooming and differentiating. Brisa is so sharp, really smart, and alert. Probably the smartest dog I have ever had. And she is absolutely beautiful. Her eyes may be one of her finest features; they are a golden-rod color, large and round. But the amazing part is how she uses them to seek out my eyes, always looking for eye to eye contact. They are so revealing that it feels like I can see right into her soul! Costa’s eyes are small and as dark as his coat so they are not as noticeable. Nor is he as interested in eye to eye contact.
Watching Brisa run full-out is exhilarating. She looks like a thoroughbred horse. Her center of gravity drops and she stretches out to a lean-mean running machine. Her coat is beautiful, shiny jet black. She has a way to talking I have never experienced in a dog before. She sort of slithers up, pulls her lips back to reveal all of her teeth and then starts talking! Not barking or whining, talking. The behavior is usually associated with guilt. She’ll get into something and then come to tell us about it. Sometimes, like this morning, she woke me up with the talking but I could not find the mischief so I was confused. Sometimes she will ring the ship’s bell when she is locked outside and wants in.
She is intensely alert when we are on the water, always looking for movement on the surface. There are lots of flying fish around which drives her nuts. And, on one of our last passages she saw dolphins in the water and actually jumped in to swim with them this time. We were shocked and had to do our first “man over-board” maneuver! There wasn’t a lot of wind so it was not too difficult, but still, we were under full sail so it’s not like just turning the boat around.
Costa on the other hand is developing into something very different. He is a little stallion! Seriously, he chomps at the bit to be released, has a very specific “alert” posture of dignity and supremacy. His head and neck are angled just so, and his hind legs are poised in a position bold readiness. He displays this posture when he senses other dogs about. Associated with that is aggressive barking which is new to us since none of our females have displayed that kind of aggression. That can
get on our nerves and we try to discourage it. He try’s to engage Brisa in play all the time, but she blows him off. In those situations, he’ll just go find his pathetic little rope toy and throw it around by himself. He is still smaller than she, especially noted while swimming. Brisa is very muscular in her rear quarters from so much swimming while he is still very slight. He may not grow to be as big as she is. His coat is not as shinny and has a mahogany sheen instead of the jet blue-black
of Brisa. He takes the non-dominance position with her in all situations except food, and in that realm he attacks Brisa if is she comes close to his bowl! They have actually had 2 very alarming fights requiring one of us to physically pull one of them off the other and confine them to the kennel. The kennel is another funny thing, when one of them gets into trouble and they hear the word kennel, they both go in! It is so funny.
Neither one of them likes the other to be in the lead while walking on leashes, so we have found that using a double lead works best, and it relieves one of us of leash duty. Having Costa has resulted in Brisa maturing into a very manageable dog, no more biting us and no more getting into things like she used to. It is impressive. She is a lovely companion now, and only 1 year old. Costa never was an “in your face” dog nor a biter so that has not been an issue with him. He doesn’t really get
into stuff too much, except he likes our clothes, especially the underclothes for nest building and he will occasionally chew on shoes if they are laying around and he is bored.
Brisa is can be VERY jealous and spiteful, willfully spiteful. She is like having a human female around when it comes to that. If she does not get what she wants, she will go and do something to show us how she feels about it. Both of them, independently, lie down while eating dry dog food, sort of draped over the bowl. They pick up and throw the bowl around when they are hungry or thirsty! Brisa doesn’t do that as much any more, but she will hold out for bones instead of kibble, become starved
and then start talking to me, sometimes biting my hands. Brisa still won’t sit quietly outside of a store but Costa will if he is by himself. When one of us takes Costa to shore alone, Brisa won’t let him back on the boat when we return. Brisa will still steal food off the counter if given the chance. She ate Michael’s entire dinner the other night without making a sound or disturbing the bowl! I went to the bathroom, came back and it was empty.
We love them just as they are and wish they wouldn’t grow any older. Perhaps you are thinking that “I really need to get a life!” Grandbabies, here I come!!!
