Portuguese Water Dogs are generally robust, healthy canines.  But, as with most breeds, they do have known health issues.  If you are considering bringing a PWD into your family, you will want to educate yourself about the health problems most common to PWDs and the health tests that exist to check for them.

Information about common PWD health concerns and the tests that can be performed.

The Portuguese Water Dog Club of America (PWDCA) recommends that PWD breeders perform the following health screenings on both the sire and dam prior to breeding:

1. Hip screening that meets the minimum following results: OFA certified fair, good or excellent;
2. A current (no more than one year old) CERF;
3. prcd PRA testing via Optigen;
4. Storage Disease testing via GM1

In addition, it is recommended that Juvenile Dilated Cardiomyopathy (JDCM) testing be done on either the dam or sire.

If you are thinking of purchasing a PWD puppy, we suggest that you consider only litters with parents that had all PWDCA recommended health testing done prior to the breeding.  Keep in mind that testing cannot be completed until a dog has reached 24 months of age.  A red flag should go up if you hear of a litter with a parent younger than 2 years old.

Do not hesitate to ask the breeder to provide documentation of the following for both the sire and dam of the litter:

• OFA Rating
• OptiGen PRA Rating
• GM-1 Rating
• CERF Number
• JDCM Linked Marker Test Result (on at least one of the pair)

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