If the Visigoths were not already secondarily responsible for the origin of the Portuguese Water Dog (through the dogs they originally left behind in their battles with the Romans), then in the fifth century they were primarily responsible when they invaded and settled in the Iberian peninsula.

There is some confusion as to what dogs they had with them at this time. Were they a breed directly descended from the dogs they originally took from the Steppes? or as some believe, were the dogs in fact Russian Water Dogs (later called Barbosses or Barbets)? or maybe even Hungarian Sheep Poodles descended from the same dogs of the Steppes but instead brought

by the Huns (who potentially had stolen them from the Phoenicians) to Russia and Hungary. There are some that even suggest they were the German Pudels that were bred from the dogs that the Visigoths’ sister tribe, the Ostrogoths, had brought from the Steppes.

In the end, which breed of dog the Visigoths carried with them is less of an issue, as the fact that the breed was in fact descended from the dogs of the Steppes. And maybe even more interesting is the fact that these original dogs of the Steppes were spread over so much territory and then brought back in contact with each of the separate lines of descent, to be mixed and help make each separate breed even stronger.

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