20-30kgs AVERAGE LIFESPANġ5 + years BREED PERSONALITY, CHARACTERISTICS AND TEMPERAMENT

The Podengo is now also a great companion & it excels in obedience, agility, lure coursing and other performance sports as well as being used as therapy dogs. The small Podengo also travelled the world, keeping rodent numbers down on the ships of the Portuguese explorers, including Magellan and Vasco da Gama, from the 15th century on. The breed has an acute sense of smell, sharp vision, and keen hearing and uses all of these senses along with speed, agility and endurance in a unique hunting style. The Podengo has developed over many centuries to be specifically suited to the rigors of the Portuguese climate and terrain, resulting in an exceptionally healthy, versatile, natural rabbit hunter able to flush rabbits from dense brush and rock crevices. It is a primitive type hound whose origin is thought to be from dogs such as the Pharaoh Hound from Egypt, brought by Phoenicians and Romans to the Iberian Peninsula in ancient times. The Portuguese Podengo is the national breed of Portugal. As there is no word for ‘hound’ in the Portuguese language, this was later shortened to Podengo and specifically referred to these primitive, prick-eared, multi-sensory, pack-hunting dogs. ‘Podengo de Mostra’ was used in Portugal to describe a pack-hunting dog as early as the 16 th century.

Portuguese podengo barking