2. CHARACTERISATION OF THE BREED:

A dog of infinite intelligence, naturally gifted with innate conditions that make it almost a circus dog. A man who has trained it, has had information about health, balance of character together with the ability to learn the natural conditions of its work and with the grounding of these parameters has
  

maintained the breed, and also with a traditional and enormous capacity to adapt. Now it has easily adapted to the cold and damp climate of the North and the heat of the Southern Peninusla. From here in the initial
  

A good and correct selection process has preserved the breed during years of crossbreeding their characters and we actually observe a large population, homogenised and in an amazingly pure state. Without doubt, this breed has existed with strict controls, with strict crosses between dogs of the same breed, with a spontaneous tendency to continue the breed from generation to generation. Certainly this has resulted in, and is vitally important for the owners, an extraordinary quality necessary for a working dog.

With this unconscious effort we find a dog, which presents obedience and attitude for devolopment for the distinct task we expect of it, with a natural strength to which it has easily adapted.

It is a dog, in the South, which adapts to shepherding with great efficiency, making it a valuable asset to man. It could be said that this has been its principle activity for years, because it has been, and to date continues to be a substantial image in shepherding and cowherding in Andalucia and areas of Extremadura. But shepherding is not the unique activity of the adaptive "Adalucian Turk", also it is used as a hunting dog, as a working dog to assist fisherman and in experimentally as search and rescue dogs in catastrophes, as police dogs, security dogs etc…

In the North, it was common to see it in the market streets and fishing ports as a canine figure of medium size, a wooly coat, of great vitality and with a magnificent character, before the boats set off to fish, it was, of course, the Spanish Water Dog. Its

bond with the sea can also curiously be found with the andalucian fisherman, almost all of who, develop the art of fishing close to the coast, but not only limited to them but also to some ports of Huelva and Cadiz who have set routes towards the Atlantic fishing grounds.

Spanish Water Dogs perform extraordinarily in the water; they are excellent swimmers, have an amazing capacity to swim underwater, and can go to some meters in depth.
 

In their use as a hunting or retrieving dog with a characteristically strong but appropriate mouth they are easily accustomed to contact with feathers and skin. They are excellent retrievers of hunted animals (rabbits), in thickets and scrublands they search and respond well to instructions from their owner, making them totally capable of completing their owners orders on the first instruction. Also they are found obeying instructions efficiently and instinctively have a good sense of smell. But almost certainly, in the future, their function will be as retrievers with their magnificent ability to search.

With its generic character, its coat, we can tell when these dogs have links purely with shepherding of if should be treated as one which has its links with the sea or with hunting. The sheepdog is almost always totally sheered, and almost all are sheered to coincide with the sheering of the sheep, traditionally a sheepdog can be seen with cropped hair around the face, feet and below the abdomen. A dog dedicated to working at sea has hair similar to that of the Portuguese Water Cao, which consists of cropping the entire rear part of the body from the middle. As a hunter we can see the presence of shaved feet, to permit the best movement in the water in its task as a retriever.