We
became interested in the wire-hair Portuguese
Podengo Pequeno in May 2002 when we decided that
we’d like to look for a small dog to share our
family life. After having had many different large
breeds of
dogs over our lifetime, and having shared
the previous 26 years with trailing Bloodhounds who
lived in the house with us,
we decided to look for
a small breed that had the following qualities:
good health, friendly personality
but not overly
dependent on constant attention, fairly easy to
train, could be trusted around
very young children,
strong and sturdy especially in our New England
winters, prick ears, wire-hair, “tight” lips,
maintenance free coat, could hike long distances,
was quiet in the house, and enjoyed snuggling up
with its
human family members.
To our delight, we
have found the PPPWH to have all of these traits and
more.
Coming from Portugal, the breed loves warm weather,
but we have found that they do very well in our
winters here in NH. Occasionally we will get a foot
or more of snow at one time. I will go out in the
dog yard and tramp down a few trails for them. They
take over after that and love it. They go out in the
woods with
us for cross-country skiing; snowshoeing,
and sledding - always looking for elusive
"critters". You do have to call them in on a regular
basis so that they don't range too far. Being
hounds, they need to be fenced when let out to
"potty" or just to get out of the house for air and
exercise. They require next to no grooming as
the
wire hair usually sheds everything.
All
Portuguese Podengos need good daily exercise and
preferably a large fenced-in area. However, when
they come in the house, mine just "grab" a couch,
chair, or spot on the carpet and lie down and sleep.
They often follow me from room to room, then
pick a new spot there and sleep. I don't give
commands, they just do it.
We
are very fortunate in that we have a huge forest
behind and to the side of our house and can walk
many miles back there. Since they were all little
puppies, we have walked our Podengos loose when we go out. We frequently call them back to us as we walk as
they are constantly hunting for "critters". Some are
more obedient than others. Practice on the
"Recall" should be started early and practiced
regularly. They are a
hunting hound and this
is what they have been bred to do - hunt. *While we
do not hunt ourselves, we are adamant about keeping
this strong instinct/ability in this breed.*
Portuguese Podengos are not only hunters but they
are also excellent watchdogs, so if anything or
anyone
is out in the woods when we're out there,
they will bark at it. They will bark in the house,
too, and that does need to be controlled with common
sense and consistency. They are NOT a guard dog.
As
I researched the breed and we saw the first live PPPWH’s (only 6 were in the USA that we knew of at
the time), I decided that I would really enjoy
getting back into the showring with this rare
breed and try to help build the foundation stock
for the USA. Over the years I had bred Basset
Hounds, Great Danes, and finally, Bloodhounds –
showing some of these breeds in AKC Conformation
classes as well as Obedience trials and earning
various titles with them. I had also taught dog
obedience professionally for nine years and had
spent 22 years training Bloodhounds and other
Bloodhound handlers for criminal and search
and rescue work – being a Deputy Sheriff, myself,
for 22 years. Cal continues to help train Bloodhound
handlers.
I
was fortunate enough to be put in contact with some
of Portugal’s most outstanding PPPWH breeders
and
started to communicate via mail, mostly, for our
first puppy. Nine months later, he arrived.
Our
second
puppy took almost a year to obtain, but she
was well worth the wait. After this, despite my
fear of flying,
we went to Portugal to see the Monografica and meet the PP’s in “the flesh” and the
breeders in person. (See our “Portugal” webpage.)
We got our first Podengo, Horacio de Viamonte, in
January 2003, from Miguel Sabino in Leiria,
Portugal.
Our second puppy, Sarissa
from the Monte dos Podengos kennels of M. Antonieta
Rodrigues of
Biscainho,
Portugal, arrived in April. A few months later in
August 2003, after a trip to see the Monografica -
the big Portuguese Podengo dog show put on by the
Portuguese Podengo Club of Portugal - we returned
and awaited the arrival of Ilda da Casa de S.
Domingos, a puppy from the Abreus of
Ereira,
Portugal. A year
later, we brought back our final
two puppies of our original breeding stock from
Carla Molinari of Vale do Negro kennels
in Estoril,
Portugal. These two puppies are Saladinha and
Tintol do Vale Negro.
On our recent trip to Portugal in June of 2007, we
added a new little boy, Habib da Casa da Torre, to
our breeding stock and our family. He is of a
different bloodline than our others and we are
hoping that he will add some additional good
qualities to our breeding program. Jose Romao
Pereira Silva of Estremoz,
Portugal, is his breeder.
We are deeply grateful for the trust that these
Portuguese Podengo breeders have shown us by
allowing us to import their puppies and by their
help and encouragement in furthering the breed in
America.
In
January 2008, we bred our ARBA CH Aurora
da Floresta - "Rory" - to our imported
Habib da Casa da Torre. We now have our first generation
of American born puppies from our own American bred
bitch. We are quite excited over this "big" step in
forwarding this breed's foundation in America.
Since March 2005, when our first PPPWH bitch was old
enough to be bred, we have produced 8 litters
with a total of 21 puppies. We will not breed
a bitch before she is 2 years of age as we want her
to
be mature both physically and emotionally. All
of our breeding stock have their patellas checked
each
time they go to the veterinarian's for annual
check-ups; and recently we have started to send them
in for OFA certification. All of our breeding
stock had their eyes checked by a canine
ophthalmologist
in November 2007 and have been CERF certified.
We
now have puppies from our Podengos da Floresta
Kennels in Finland, Africa, France, and Florida,
Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, Maine, North
Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, California, and New Hampshire.
We are charter members of the Portuguese Podengo
Pequenos of America club and Penny is the treasurer. We
are working hard to
help develop this club. We
believe that people
that are interested in the
Portuguese Podengo Pequeno breed should seriously consider
joining this club to help support the club’s
endeavors to have the breed recognized by the
American Kennel Club and to help us educate the
general public about this rare breed and its many
delightful attributes.
for further info:
calpens@worldpath.net
