In 1100 A.D. the age of the Crusades began and the Christians took Portugal away from the Arabs, while Afonso III, Count of Burgundy, split off Spain in 1249.

Around 1297 a monk noted down the story of how a fisher was saved by a dog of the following description: "Dog with long, black fur, clipped on the back up to the first rib and down to a tuft on the end of the tail, white on the feet, tip of tail and muzzle." It is assumed that what he described was a Water Dog.

In the following centuries, up to 1400 A.D., Portugal lived from saltworks and fishing: dolphins, swordfish and tuna fish. It signed a number of treaties with Tunisia, northern Italy, Provence, Normandy and Flanders governing trade in wine, wool and fish.

Around 1400 A.D., "a spanyel" from Spain is mentioned in the "Book of St. Albans" and "Masters of the Game" for the first time. This dog lived in the ports of the countries participating in the trade agreements.

The big Water Dog even managed to sail with the Spanish Armada, where he was used as a courier between the ships. When Philipp the Second of Spain sent the fleet to war against the English in 1588, they took the Water Dogs along.

The Armada lost the battle in the English Channel, however, and limped homeward by way of Scotland and Ireland, where it went under in a storm. The dogs, though, reached the coast of Ireland thanks to their indomitable swimming abilities. There they mixed in with the indigenous dogs (Irish setters, Irish terriers) to become the Irish water spaniel.

Margarida Ribeiro of Portugal, who studied the customs and mores of Portuguese fishermen, also found it impossible to ignore the Portuguese Water Dogs. She asserts that the "invincible" Spanish Armada used them as rescue dogs, which enabled them to get to Ireland and give rise to the Irish Water Spaniel. Ms. Ribeiro obtained her information from a certain Clifford L.B. Hubbard.

Now the "canis aquaticus" or "spanyolus" was also familiar in England and Ireland.

In 1620 Rembrandt, the famous painter from the Low Countries, made a self?portrait with a Water Dog sitting at his feet. In 1622 Gervase Markham wrote an important book: "The Art of Fowling by Water and Land", a book on the art of hunter on water and on land. The hunting dogs mentioned here were Water Dogs (Giant Water Dogs) with a lion clip.

In 1642 a white Water Dog became Prince Rupert's most famous pet. He sported a lion clip and very wavy fur.

In 1712 the term "Cão d'Água" was defined in a Portuguese-Latin dictionary as a dog which hunts aquatic prey and has long, shaggy fur.

In 1750 the Count of Bouffon, a Frenchman, wrote his famous classification of dog breeds. He describes the "Roman canis leo" as the ancestor of all Water Dogs. He divided them up into "Giant Water Dogs" and "Miniature Water Dogs".

In 1792 C. Linnaeus added a third variation to this classification system in his treatise "Systema naturae": the "Aquatilis" or "Barbet". This variation later gave rise to the poodle.

In 1828 King D. Miguel returned to Portugal from Brazil and landed at the port of Belém/Lisbon. Here a painter (who remains unknown) did a portrait of him watching a Water Dog swimming from the open sea to the boat

In 1897 King D. Carlos became the founder and honorary president of the CCP, or Portuguese Hunting Club. His Yacht, the D. Amélia, counted four Water Dogs among its crew.

In 1901 a treatise on "Iberian Pointers" referred to the "Grande Barbedo", the "Giant Bearded (Dog)", i.e., the "Giant Water Dog".

In 1912 "Caça", a monthly hunting magazine, described how the Water Dog was trained to fish. The dog's physiognomy approaches today's standard and is described in almost as much detail.