Staff Photos by Corey Lowenstein
 

Diana Schaub and her dog Fennel take a short break between tasks during the courier water dog test at the Southern Splash Water Trials, put on in Wake County by the Movers & Shakers Portuguese Water Dog Club of the Carolinas.

 By SAM LAGRONE, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- The 8-year-old Portuguese water dog jumped into a rowboat on Montague Lake, shook the water from her curly coat and soaked her co-owner, Diana Schaub. Instead of scolding Dill, Schaub wrapped her arms around the black dog and cheered.

Dill had just earned her "courier water dog excellent" certification at the first Southern Splash Water Trials, hosted by the Movers & Shakers Portuguese Water Dog Club of the Carolinas. Her brother Fennel -- who completed the same trial Saturday -- also belongs to Schaub and Lauren Weiner, both of Baltimore, Md.

The two-day, breed-specific event certifies that Portuguese water dogs are able to perform a series of aquatic competition events.

Dill had passed the certification, adding another set of initials to a lengthy list of doggie credentials.

During the age of sailing, dogs like Dill and Fennel were bred by Portuguese fisherman to swim in the open ocean to place nets in the water.

The dogs retrieved objects that had fallen overboard and passed messages from ship to ship, said Lou Guthrie, head of the club.

Because of their pedigree, the medium-size black or brown dogs are "very people-oriented," Guthrie said.

The events Saturday were based on the tasks the dogs had to perform while on ships.

Some of the events included fetching a line of floats from the shore back to a boat on the water, passing a message between boats and swimming a buoy past a marker and returning.

Mary Harkins, the national rescue coordinator for the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America, said the breed was almost extinct in the early 1970s, down to less than 30 in the world. Thanks to careful breeding, the dog has surged back, Harkins said.

Portuguese water dogs are popular as pets because they don't shed and handle themselves well around people, she said.

"They're becoming more popular than I'd like," Harkins said, noting that some new owners aren't prepared for the energetic personality of the breed. That sometimes leads to owners having to return the dog to the breeder, which at $2,000 a pup can make for an expensive mistake.

But for those who can keep up, owners say they love their dogs.

Julia Asbed of Houston, Texas, nestled 4-year-old Lady Byng in her lap and cooed in the dog's ear after Byng earned her working water dog certification, the second-highest level of certification.

"Lady Byng is the best thing," Asbed said in sing-song voice. "She says, I love my mom, even if she makes me jump off the boat."

Staff writer Sam LaGrone can be reached at 829-8968 or slagrone@newsobserver.com.