Dog Weathervane – Portuguese Water Dog Standing

The Portuguese Water Dog Weathervane (Standing version) featured here is depicted with a Retriever Clip hair cut, matching that of the customer’s dog. This Portie can also be made with a Lion Clip style hair cut, if you prefer. Our skilled artisans fabricated the sculpture from copper in high detail swell-bodied style. Each of the artists in our studio has made their own personal set of hammers for creating the details and textures that so beautifully communicate fur or leaves or grasses.

Because these weather vanes are made to order you can specify which coat you would like when you talk with us. And you can send photos of your dog, helping us to personalize your sculpture piece with greater accuracy. 

All of our dog Weathervanes can be made with an optional collar. We can actually inscribe your dog’s name on the collar or we can add a tag in the shape of a dog bone, a heart or a circle. Using a combination of these options, we can incorporate up to three dog’s names on your weather vane! What we do is put one dog’s name on one side of the collar, another dog’s name on the opposite side of the collar and a third name on the dog tag. The collar and/or tag can be optionally gold leafed as well. The dog has glass eyes, which are available in a range of colors, for your choosing.

Originating back to the 1500s in Portugal, Portuguese Water Dogs were originally used by fishermen to send messages between boats, to retrieve fish and articles from the water, and to guard the fishing boats. They helped to bring in nets and to save fishermen when they fell in the water. Portuguese Water Dogs can herd fish into a fisherman’s net! They were very popular, and this might be where they picked up their loyal and dependable characteristics. Eventually commercial fishing equipment made the dogs unnecessary. They fell out of favor and almost became extinct. At one point, there were only 25 Portuguese Water Dogs in the world. Since then, breeders have been carefully bringing back the breed. There are now thousands of Porties throughout the world. During every Sunday San Francisco Giants home game these talented canines work from boats and dive after hit baseballs that land in the water during batting practice and the game.