The Phoenicians were among the great seafarers of the ancient world, travelling to many regions of the globe and returning with all semblance of exotic items. It is thought that the Phoenicians first brought the PWD’s ancestors back with them to the ports in the Mediterranean along their traditional trade routes – Northern Africa, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Further evidence to that theory is supported by the fact that the Phoenicians were one of the few traders who ventured out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic to settle in the regions there (Northwestern Africa & Southern Portugal).

When the various tribes settled in these areas, many of the variety of dogs they brought with them were called by the names Canis Leo (Lion Dog) and Canis Turkus (Turkish Dog).

It is thought that these dogs were the ancestors of the Portuguese Water Dog. Consider that the “Lion Dog” reference mimics the PWD’s famous “lion cut”.

And that this same reference appeared again for the Asian dogs that the Visigoths carried with them when they battled the Romans some 1200 years later.

The confusion surrounding this theory is where the dogs actually came from. According to ancient trade routes, the farthest east the Phoenicians travelled was Turkey, which still puts them many thousands of miles away from the central Asian Steppes (even if they ventured into the Black Sea, which is not shown in historical records, they would only have been as far as the Georgian area of Southern Russia, which is again still about 2000 miles away from the Kirgizia region of Russia [western border of China] from whence the PWD’s ancestors are understood to have come from).

The logical conclusion would be that the dogs had first been carried by warring tribes or traders (stolen from the tribes of the Steppes, or the Huns, or maybe even brought by the Huns themselves) and brought to the Turkish region – but this is not really known.

NAVIGATE TO:

1. The Phoenicians
2. The Romans
3. The Visigoths
4. The Moors
5. Summary - How The PWD Came To Portugal

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• PWD History Main Page
• What Can be Agreed Upon
• How the PWD Came to Portugal
• PWD as a Traditional Fishing Dog
• How PWD was Saved from Extinction
• The Modern PWD