President-elect Barack Obama told George Stephanopoulos on ABC News' This Week that the family has narrowed the choice to either a Portuguese water hound or labradoodle.

The former is actually known as the Portuguese water dog. It dates back to the 1200s and worked on boats with Portuguese fishermen, according to the website of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America.

Sen. Ted Kennedy has helped make them famous, returning to the Capitol after brain cancer treatment with his two Portuguese water dogs.

The labradoodle, on the other hand, is a relatively new dog whose cross-breeding between a Labrador and a poodle goes back only to the 1980s.

In his election-night victory speech, Obama promised daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, they could have a puppy in the White House. He later said that Malia is allergic, that the family would need a "hypoallergenic" dog and that they wanted a pound dog.

Both dogs are non-shedders and do not cause as much reaction in allergy sufferers as other dogs, says Stu Freeman, president of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America.

"There really is no hypoallergenic dog," Freeman says. "We tell people to spend time around the dogs to make sure they're going to be OK. The hair might not bother them, but the saliva might."

Freeman says it can be difficult to find either breed in shelters because "rescue groups will always get word they're in shelters and save them."

Obama told Stephanopoulos they were going to start "looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up."

Source: www.usatoday.com