A Portuguese Pointer, is a breed

Dog breed

Dog breeds are groups of closely related and visibly similar domestic dogs, which are all of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris, having characteristic traits that are selected and maintained by humans, bred from a known foundation stock....

 of dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

 developed as a gun dog

Gun dog

thumb|right|A group of Gun dogs as printed in Dogs of All Nations by W.E. Mason in 1915Gun dogs, also gundogs or bird dogs, are types of dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game, usually birds. Gun dogs are divided into three primary types: Retrievers, flushing dogs, and...

. It is one of several pointing breeds and is mainly used in Red-legged Partridge

Red-legged Partridge

The Red-legged Partridge is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is sometimes known as French Partridge, to distinguish it from the Grey or English Partridge....

 hunting.
The Portuguese pointer (perdigueiro Português) arose from the ancient Iberian hunting dogs with his presence in Portugal traceable to the early Twelfth Century. Initially the dog was bred in the royal kennels and later became a very popular hunting dog for the lower classes of society. In the Eighteenth Century, many English families established a presence in the region of Oporto in the business of wine production and came to know the Portuguese hunting breed which was taken to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 where they played a part in the origin of the English pointer. However, during the Nineteenth Century when Portugal was experiencing considerable social hardships, the breed began a progressive decline. It was not until the 1920's when some breeders made an effort to salvage the breed by locating some of the ancient Portuguese dogs in the inaccessible north of Portugal. The Portuguese pedigree book was then established in 1932 and breed standard in 1938.
For at least a thousand years, this dog has always had the same square head, a marked stop, triangular ears and compact look.

Appearance

The Portuguese Pointer is a dog of medium proportions.

When being evaluated at a conformation show

Conformation show

Conformation shows, also referred to as breed shows, are a kind of dog show in which a judge familiar with a specific dog breed evaluates individual purebred dogs for how well the dogs conform to the established breed type for their breed, as described in a breed's individual breed standard.A...

, dogs judged for conformation that benefits working ability, with deviations from the standard penalised according to the amount that they interfere with working ability. The dogs are square in build, with the 10:10½ height to length ratio. The tail is docked to half, or two-thirds the natural length, and held level with the spine when the dog is excited, hanging down otherwise.

Coat and colour

The coat is short and coarse on most of the dog, being the texture of velvet

Velvet

Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...

 on the ears and face.

Its standard colour is yellow or light brown, both unicoloured or with white markings.

Size

The height at the withers

Withers

The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of a four-legged animal. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, and in horses and dogs it is the standard place to measure the animal's height .-Horses:The withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the...

is 56 - 50 cm (22 - 20 in). The weight is 20 - 27 kg (44 - 59 lb) for males, and 16 - 21 kg (35 - 48 lb) for females.