Portuguese Water Dog Foundation, Inc.

09/14/2025

Who are you remembering on National Pet Memorial Day? Memorialize your friend by a tribute donation to the PWD Foundation. Your donation will help provide a healthier future for all PWDs.

To learn more go to our tributes page. Several types of tributes are available, here's the link to general tributes.

Through General Tributes to PWDs, we are able to fund health research focused on Portuguese Water Dogs.

09/09/2025

2025 Health Survey Closes Dec. 1, 2025
You still have an opportunity to play a vital role in the future health of our breed

In May, The Foundation invited all Portuguese Water Dog owners—across the U.S. and around the world—to complete a survey on the health of their PWDs. To date, we have collected health information on more than 2,800 dogs! Help us gather more information by visiting https://www.pwdfoundation.org/2025-health-survey/ to take the survey.

The goal of the health survey is to help us better understand the current health status of PWDs and to identify any emerging concerns within the breed. The insights you share will guide important efforts to protect and improve the health of our dogs for generations to come.

Here's a small preview of what we're learning:

08/22/2025

Update on liver fluke study: The originally provided link to the interest survey isn't working. For those of you who would like to sign up to participate and haven't been able to...please use this link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkJn9groGZ9I9weFe1A3sB2ZYDo4IyQd-0c0zTLi-s26DAsQ/viewform

The updated flyer is also provided in this post as a reminder of the aim and the process for this study.

08/19/2025

The Foundation is pleased to support this project looking into the prevalence of this emerging issue in freshwater exposure to a parasite commonly known as a liver fluke. It is our goal to be able to proactively provide a better understanding of the impact on the health of PWDs.

08/17/2025

Learn a bit more about Addison's disease and what the Foundation is doing to get answers.

Addison’s disease (hypoadrenocorticism) occurs when the adrenal glands fail to produce the hormones the body requires. (Much like when insulin is not produced resulting in diabetes.) Important adrenal gland hormones are steroids, namely aldosterone and cortisol. These hormones help regulate functi...

08/10/2025

Cancer's most common forms in PWDs

Although cancer is often discussed as one disease, it is important to note this term actually describes more than 100 diseases with different characteristics, and with unique patterns of behavior.

08/09/2025

We’re here! Great information presented at the AKC CHF conference!

08/07/2025

Novel ways to control transmission of disease by mosquitos.

SUMMARY: Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are investigating how infection by certain bacteria decreases the ability of mosquitoes to transmit infectious larvae of Dirofilaria immitis, the agent of heartworm disease. THE PROBLEM: Mosquitoes are required fo...

08/05/2025

Improving in-home treatment of canine seizures.

Idiopathic epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological disorder of dogs. Approximately half of dogs with idiopathic epilepsy have cluster seizures, defined as 2 or more seizures within a 24-hour period, and have an increased risk of epilepsy-related complications or death associated with this s...

08/03/2025

This study is open for enrollment. Beginning January of this year they are looking at ways to improve GI tolerance of chemotherapy for lymphoma.

The study has been open for enrollment since Jan 1, 2025. Thus far, no dogs have been enrolled, so there is no clinical or objective data to report. CHF 03300 MY1 Probiotic Prevention of GI Hyperpermeability and Metabolome Disturbances in Dogs with Multicentric Lymphoma Undergoing Multi-drug Chemoth...

07/31/2025

Wrap up of the Addison's study conducted at University of MN. Dr. Friedenberg continues to try to unlock the genetics of Addison's disease in the PWD.

Over the course of this study, we collected DNA samples from hundreds of affected and unaffected PWDs. We performed high-coverage whole-genome sequencing of 16 PWDs (and used publicly available resources to acquire an additional 20 high-coverage samples); low-pass whole-genome sequencing of 101 PWDs...