The Irish Water Spaniel, American Water Spaniel, and the Spanish Water Dog.
One of these is not like the other.
For a couple of reasons that aren’t obvious, the Spanish Water Dog is not like the other breeds mentioned. For starters, it’s not in the AKC’s Sporting Group even though it has “water” in its name. The Spanish Water Dog is a multi-purpose breed, but it was initially developed to herd, and that “job description” put it in the Herding Group. In the course of doing its job, a SWD will eagerly jump into water if necessary to complete his task, a probable scenario since these dogs often worked in wetlands, and often as a fisherman’s assistant.
Point Two. While the Irish Water Spaniel is Irish, and the AWD is an American creation, the Spanish Water Dog isn’t really Spanish. It is believed by many to have been brought to Spain’s Iberian Peninsula some 300 years ago by Turks of the Ottoman Empire, or modern day Turkey.
That said, De las Rosas (1993) and Salas (1984) both cite possible African origins after noting that these dogs were used by North African tribes in water work and herding, and that it was the Moors who introduced the dogs to Spain during the 8th century.
The debate doesn’t end there. Some experts hint at Asian origins, others to Hungarian roots. Of the latter, proponents of this theory cite the propensity of the breed’s coat to cord like a Puli and Komondor. It should be said, however, that some cynologists think the SWD’s corded coat was adapted to cope with the variations of humidity and drought of the marshy regions of the Andalusia region in Spain where the dogs assisted herdsmen, hunters and fishermen for centuries. Indeed, the breed was nicknamed the ‘Andalusian Turk’ because it was thought to have descended from dogs brought to the country on sheep boats from Turkey (referring back to those Turkish origins). On this point of origin, we can go “round and round” since yet another group of breed experts point out that there were three separate populations of SWD in Spain with somewhat different phenotypes and sizes before the Turkish boats arrived in Spain.
Purebred dog enthusiasts have learned to be patient because too often, we lack records to know conclusively the origins of a breed, and may never really know with certainty.
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