A Portuguese Water Dog, a breed native to the Algarve, is first described in 1297 in a monk’s account of a drowning sailor who was pulled from the sea by a dog with a "black coat, the hair long and rough, cut to the first rib and with a tail tuft".

The Poodle and the Portuguese Water Dog may have developed from the same ancient genetic pool.

At one time the Poodle was a longer-coated dog, as is one variety of the Portuguese Water Dog.

The possibility also exists that some of the long-coated water dogs grew up with the ancient Iberians.

In early times, Celtiberians migrated from lands which now belong to southwestern Germany.

Swarming over the Pyrenees, circulating over the whole of western Europe, they established bases in Iberia, as well as in Ireland, Wales, and Brittany.

The Irish Water Spaniel and Kerry Blue Terrier are believed by some to be descendants of the Portuguese Water Dog.