The Podengo Portugues is a suitable dog for quite a many hobbies. Often it seems that only the lack of imagination is limiting the possibilities of what to do with a podengo. However on a "stubborn-day" one would hope to be at any place else than sharing a hobby with a podengo... Especially when this stubborness occurs in the middle of obedience class or agility track... When a podengo decides something - it will keep its mind. No negotiating on that... So one needs to have loads of good sense of humor in order to "survive" with this breed.
Carlos is my first dog and podengo ever. We have had many hobbies since he was a puppy. We have been taking actively part in shows, lure-coursing and agility. We have also tried obedience and trailing (blood). Carlos has always been vety enthusiastic towards any hobby. He loves to do new things but the dearest hobbies at the moment are agility and lure-coursing. In competitions we had a very bad season in 2007, Carlos quit all his trials. One reason could be the accident and the following surgery he went to in Christmas 2006.
Obedience is, according to Carlos and depending on the day, a very inspiring hobby or total boredom.. It all depends on what mood "His Royal Highness" is on on that particular day. In my opinion, despite the intelligence this breed possesses, a podengo is never going to be a perfect obedient slave like many service breeds seems to be. Strict, army-type rules are not valid while working with Carlos. He needs softer methods and lots of motivation from the handler. We have also had some challenges with the concentration, since our happy little Carlos might see a nice bitch or something else more interesting while training and of course "when a man needs to go... he goes..."...
I can confess, that my sense of humor has been pushed to its limits while training with Carlos. It is not only one or two times that my clever boy full of "good" ideas has decided to arrange some program to the audience by showing his talents in comics.. Usually this is in a way or other linked to embarrasing the owner/handler.. But what can a pequeno do, if he gets tired in the middle of the agility track and he needs to go to sleep in to the "bag". That particular time, in order to get Carlos out, also the handler - meaning me - needed to crawl inside. It can also happen that the weather is so hot that it is absolutely impossible to do anything else in an obedience trial than lay on the ground....
My intention is to get involved with many hobbies also with Oliver and Jarco. Most of all we hope that both of our younger boys would especially enjoy lure-coursing.
Oliver has already begun agility training and seems to be very promissing in it. However, competitions will still have to wait for a little since we want to make our performance more sure before entering any competitions. Oliver has also shown some potential to obedience training and after his pubertity age has passed, we might try it too. Oliver has already entered in several shows with success. He has already 9 CAC at the age of 1,5 years and the Baltic Junior Winner 2007 title as well as the Finnish Junior Winner 2007 title. He has also been BOB several times and even beaten his own father Gizmo that is already a legend in the show rings among podengos.
In lure-coursing, Oliver has been participating to two competitions but with no success yet. We think that some lack of selfconfidence is the main reason for the lower than expected results and hope that next season (2008) will be better for both Oliver and Carlos.
Jarco has not yet begun his hobbies but he has been watching Carlos and Oliver do agility. He seems to like it, but his concentration is still not good enough for the actual practice. Jarco will be beginning agility in spring 2008.
Lure-coursing and track competition seems to be the most suitable hobbies for Jarco. He is very enthusiastic about both coursing modes and will be starting competitions as soon as he is old enough, 15 months, and that will be in the beginning of July 2008.
Jarco has also begun his show-career. He has been to 5 shows, in puppy class, one in Latvia and four in Finland. Jarco has been 5 times BOB-puppy and the judges seem to have liked him very much.