a Labradoodle or Portuguese Water Hound (dog) for the Obamas

Will it be a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Hound (Portuguese Water Dog) for the Obamas? The quest for the First Dog continues!

The first Family still doesn't have a First Dog and time is ticking. The Obamas will be moving in to the White House in less than ten days and Malia and Sasha still don't have the pet their dad promised them when he won the presidency more than two months ago. Well, at least they've narrowed it down to two. In an interview with former White House inside George Stephanopoulos, President-elect Barack Obama revealed that the choice for a First Pet has been narrowed down between a Labradoodle and a Portuguese Water Dog (Portuguese Water Hound).

The subject came up because Laia and Sasha Obama asked Stephanopoulos to ask their father what dog they will be getting. According to Stephanopoulos' blog, the two girls went with their dad to the interview. While Obama was getting prepped, the two girls went to the control room and played director and producer, and gave Stephanopoulos the question they most wanted to ask the President-elect.

"While you were getting made up," I told Obama, "they went into the control room and played director and producer. And they actually gave me a question they want me to ask you. You know exactly what it’s going to be."

Obama laughed, "Uh-oh. Go ahead."

On behalf of Malia and Sasha Obama, I asked the president-elect, "What kind of a dog are we getting and when are we getting it?"

Obama said, "They seem to have narrowed it down to a labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound ...medium-sized dog, and so, we’re now going to start looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up."

"So, you’re closing in on it?" I asked Obama.

"We’re closing in on it. This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary," the president-elect said.

But what is a Labradoodle, or a Portuguese Water Hound? Here are some information about a Labradoodle courtesy of Wikipedia:

A Labradoodle is a crossbred or hybrid dog created by crossing the Labrador Retriever and the Standard or Miniature Poodle.

The Labradoodle as a dog breed is still developing, and does not yet "breed true," i.e., puppies do not have consistently predictable characteristics. While many Labradoodles display desired traits, their appearance and behavioral characteristics remain, from an overall breed standpoint, unpredictable.

As such, Labradoodles' hair can be anywhere from wiry to soft, and may be straight, wavy, or curly. Some Labradoodles do shed, although the coat usually sheds less and has less dog odor than that of a Labrador Retriever. The color range includes white, cream, gold, apricot, red, brown and black, and most of the other colors seen in Poodles.

Like most Labrador Retrievers and Poodles, Labradoodles are generally friendly, energetic and good with families and children (although as with any dog the temperament may vary between individuals). Labradoodles also often display an affinity for water and the strong swimming ability present in both their parent breeds.

Like their parent breeds, both of which are amongst the world's most intelligent dog breeds, Labradooodles are very intelligent and quite trainable. Labradoodles can be taught to obey verbal or sign language commands, or both, and remain commonly used as guide dogs for disabled or handicapped persons around the world.

And here is an excerpt from an entry about the Portuguese Water Dog (Portuguese Water Hound) also from Wikipedia:

Portuguese Water Dogs (PWD) once existed all along Portugal's coast, where they were taught to herd fish into fishermen's nets, to retrieve lost tackle or broken nets, and to act as couriers from ship to ship, or ship to shore. Portuguese Water Dogs rode in bobbing fishing trawlers as they worked their way from the warm Atlantic waters of Portugal to the frigid fishing waters off the coast of Iceland where the fleets caught saltwater codfish to bring home.

The closest relative of the PWD is widely thought to be the Standard Poodle. Like Poodles and several other water dog breeds, PWDs are highly intelligent, have curly coats, and do not shed. However, unlike Poodles, Portuguese Water Dogs are robustly built, with stout legs, and their tails are left naturally long and undocked. They have webbed toes, for swimming, which one can notice by trying to pass one's finger between the dog's toes. Their eyes are brown, and their coats can be black, reddish brown, white, or black and white.

Male Portuguese Water Dogs usually grow to be about 20 to 23 inches (51 cm to 58 cm) tall, and weigh between 40 to 60 pounds (18 kg to 27 kg), while the females usually grow to be about 17 to 21 inches (43 cm to 53 cm) tall and weigh between 35 to 50 pounds.

I hope Malia and Sasha get the dog of their choice before they move to the White House. As for me, my preference is the Portuguese Water Dog. For more information on these breeds you can check out the rest of their Wikipedia entries.

Update: Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States is coming up. See what activities are lined up in the 2009 Obama presidential inauguration events/schedule and find out when these are happening in the Obama inauguration schedule.