Bettina's Goals
Bild (20kB) Hi, my name is Bettina.

I discovered Portuguese Water Dogs during my nine-year stay in Portugal and decided to start selectively breeding them myself to give more people the opportunity to enjoy this breed of dog in 1998.

Why this of all breeds ?

Apart from the impressive history of this breed, it was their nature that captivated me: they are entirely free of aggression toward humans, they are good at adapting to any kind of surroundings and circumstances, and at the same time have abilities that are still of high social benefit today. This is what motivated me to take this route, which has not always been easy.

My main goals and basic principles are:

1.

to breed good character and a perfectly healthy constitution in my dogs.
2.

not to be a "profit-breeder" with "high-production" or mere "show-dogs".
3.

to retain and even emphasize the essential characteristics of the breed, in which pursuit official standards are important, as well they aren't necessarily absolutely mandatory like minor deviations in size and weight, for instance.
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The small but important difference between our methods and conventional breeding is that the dogs are neither born nor kept in cages.

We are a big family and I am the "leader of the pack".

This means a great deal more work than would "conventional" breeding practices when it comes to basic upbringing, training and getting the dogs accustomed to the presence of humans at an early date in order to promote optimum social behavior. But when I look at the wonderful outcome, I can only say that it was well worth the work !


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© 2001 by Bettina Otto Matthes