Pedras d’El Rei and Barril Beach near Santa Luzia in the east Algarve hosted the first international gathering of Portuguese Water Dogs (Cão de Água Português) over five days.
Some 200 delegates and their families from Portugal, USA, Germany, Scandinavia, United Kingdom and Canada gave the event a truly international flavour.
Fifty dogs strutted their stuff and loved the vast open beaches and sea off Barril Beach. The dogs demonstrated rescuing a man from the sea, retrieval of items lost overboard and participated in water trials. The placid tempered dogs were equally at home in the show ring where ‘Ilhéu Negro das Águas Bravas’, owned by Hubertus Kamp, won the Senior title. The Junior title went to nine-month-old ‘Tosta Mista Estrela do Mar’, owned by Neusa and Paulo Toste from Almádena near Lagos.
A cocktail party and official dinner with live entertainment on the Saturday evening, together with a wide variety of seminars over the five days helped to make this an extremely successful event. CHRIS WRIGHT
