Two theories have been put forth to
determine his
heritage — that he was developed from rugged Asian herding
dogs captured by the fierce Berbers, a North African Moslem people, and traveled from North Africa to Portugal with the Moors in the 8th Century; and that he is descended from the
dogs that left the Asian steppes with the Goths, a federation of German tribes, traveled west with the Ostrogoths and became the pudel, a German water
dog.