Germany Flooded with Water Dog Requests

Germany has gone crazy for the First Pooch, Portuguese water dog Bo. President Barack Obama and his family selected the Portuguese water dog for two main reasons: 1) It is suitable for people with allergies, which older daughter Malia, 10, suffers from, and 2) it is friendly and gets along well with children. Since President Obama made good on his election-campaign promise of getting a dog if he made it to the White House, the demand for the breed has been out of control in Germany, says Portuguese water dog breeder Dietlind Scholz from the Lower Saxony area of Germany. “My phone has not stopped ringing and I have had at least one hundred people call me,” she says. The Portuguese water dog, which was originally bred to help fishermen in the Algarve, nearly became extinct and puppies now cost more than €1,000 each.