The working dog's paperwork bundle
A Spanish Water Dog puppy should come home with lineage or registration papers for the litter, a microchip certificate with the transfer route explained, a vaccination and worming record showing dates and practice details, a vet health check letter, copies of both parents' health results, a signed contract, and sheets covering food, routine, and coat care. This versatile Andalusian farm and water dog often comes from breeders who work or compete with their dogs, so the bundle may also include parents' working assessments or herding and water-work notes. Those extras are worth keeping; they describe the energy and drive your puppy is likely to inherit.
Lineage and parents' working history
Read the lineage alongside the breeder's account of what the sire and dam actually do, because in this breed a title or a working description tells you more about daily life with the adult than appearance alone. Spanish Water Dogs are loyal, clever, and inclined to guard their own people, so ask how the parents behave with visitors and children and have the answers noted. Verify names, colours, sexes, and chip numbers across documents, since rustic litters can look remarkably alike under all that curl. If a parent was imported from Spain, expect foreign registration pages and ask for them in copy, not as a promise.
Hip, eye, and genetic copies to collect
Request hip score copies for both parents, recent eye examination results, and genetic test reports for the inherited conditions this breed's community screens for, including forms of progressive retinal atrophy where tested. A herding and swimming dog asks a lot of its hips across a lifetime, so grades and dates matter more than a breeder's summary adjective. Keep the laboratory pages with the registered names visible. If one parent's eye certificate is older than the breeder's usual rhythm, ask why, and note the explanation in the file. Your vet will use this family picture when deciding what to watch as your pup matures.
Coat guidance is a record, not a chat
The Spanish Water Dog's single, curly coat is traditionally never brushed; it is clipped down and allowed to form cords or curls as it grows, and it should not be treated like a poodle-style coat. Get the breeder's instructions in writing: when the puppy coat was last clipped, if at all, how the pup is bathed, and what a groomer must never do to it. File that sheet where any future groomer can read it before scissors come out. Alongside it, complete the microchip transfer at once and bring the vaccination record to your vet so the puppy course continues without a repeated or missed stage.
Contract terms and the gaps that matter here
The contract should state price, return-to-breeder terms, breeding restrictions, and the breeder's stance if a screened health problem appears despite the testing. Ask for the early socialisation record too; these puppies benefit from broad, positive exposure, and knowing what the litter has already met shapes your first month's plan. A thin file is not automatically a bad breeder in a rustic breed, but missing hip copies, no chip, and unwritten coat advice together will cost you real information. Putting the hip grades, eye pages, and that all-important coat sheet into KinsLe's Pet Passport means the Spanish Water Dog's next vet or groomer reads the same instructions you were given.