Coat and grooming

According to the FCI standard:

Hair: The whole body is abundantly covered with strong hair, with no undercoat. There are two varieties: one long and wavy and the other shorter and curly. The first is slightly shiny and woolly; the latter is dense, lustreless and forms compact cylindrical curls. Except for the underarms and groin the coat is even all over the skin. On the head it forms a topknot of wavy hair in the long and wavy variety and of curly hair in the curly variety. The hair in the ears is longer in the long and wavy variety.

Colour: The coat is black or brown of various shades, or solid white. In black or brown coats, white is accepted in the following locations: muzzle, topknot, neck, forechest, belly, tip of tail and lower extremities of the limbs, below the elbows and hocks. The white coat must not be albino, consequently the nose, eyelids and inside of the mouth should be pigmented in black, and brown in brown dogs. In this breed partial clipping of the coat, when it is too long, is typical. The hindquarters, the muzzle and part of the tail are clipped, leaving a plume of full-length hair at the tip of the tail.

Coats of PWD’s require constant brushing and combing to avoid matting. With improper brushing or lack of it, dogs can develop sever matts that pull dog’s skin and are uncomfortable for the dogs. It is also advised to bath them regularly as dirty coats are more prone to matting and breakage. It is also important to start your grooming routine as soon as possible to get the dog accustom to it.

The two clips in which most Portuguese water dogs are, are lion clip and retriver clip. For a good reference on how each clip looks like, you can find attached two pictures, taken from AKC Breed Standard and PWDCA Grooming Guide (approved in 1999), where the two clips are shown on both – wavy and curly coats.