We
bought our first Portuguese Water Dog in 1990, after watching
the Westminster Kennel Club
Dog Show on
television. In
1990,
PWDs were hard to find and it
took many calls to find a person who had actually seen
one. On our arrival
to view this breed, we knocked
at the wrong door and heard what sounded like a pack of ferocious
Dobermans.
We looked at each other with the full understanding that these
dogs might not be for us. We stayed with the dogs for 5 hours
and would not go home without a promise of a PWD to join our
lives.
Four months later, Neecho came to live with us
and our lives dramatically changed. Although we had dogs all
of our lives, we had never thought
of entering them in a “dog show”. Since Neecho became
AKC conformation eligible at six months of age, most weekends at
least one of our dogs is being shown in conformation somewhere
Because there
were so few PWDs in the Midwest in 1990, everyone knew everyone
else and we got together as often
as schedules allowed.
The Portuguese Water Dog Club of America
had been formed in 1982 and was based mostly in the East. The Portuguese
Water Dog Club of the Twin Cities (MN) was
having a get-together and we brought 9 week old Neecho to meet
more of his relatives. Many of
the people at the party were from Chicago and in Fall of 1990,
the Portuguese Water Dog Club of Greater Chicagoland
was chartered with Rich Quigley of Chicago as its’ first
president. Rae volunteered to begin a Newsletter. The first issue
of Shorelines was out in Fall 1990. Tim has been President, Vice
President, and is currently Treasurer of the PWDCGC; Rae was Shorelines
Editor for the first three years, the Water Events Chairman for
the past two years and has been active on several National committees.
Nine months after Neecho entered our lives, Frankie came to live
with us. Totally amazed with this breed, within the next few years
we added Azi, Vada and Myke-Myke.
Casa Lago is located in Antioch, Illinois and currently
consists of 2 ½ fenced
acres in the country with a pond. Our dogs have full access to
the house and the pond, to swim and play and romp.
Casa
Lago has been the site for the PWDCGC Annual Picnic for the past
11 years. Club member and guest dogs are free to run and swim
and play off lead all day while their human parents can relax and
enjoy the interaction with other PWD owners. We hold water training
classes each weekend in the pond – The Pond Puppy Training
Center – where we train young puppies with no water experience
up to Courier level dogs. The trainers are local club members who
have a track record with water training as well as trainers we
may invite from around the country. There is generally no fee for
these classes.
Tim O’Neill and Rae Kweder
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