Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club
Keeping the Irish Water Spaniel working!
The Club runs several events each year around the country, catering for beginners and novices, as well as for the more experienced and advanced handlers and dogs. These include Working Weekends, consisting of both training classes and working tests, usually with a well-known professional gundog trainer, breed confined water tests, breed confined shooting days on live game, breed confined introduction days, inter-breed matches and any variety working tests.
In 2009 the Club was granted Field Trial status by the Kennel Club and in December 2009 will be holding an any variet novice retriever stake.
The Club also represents the breed at a number of Game Fairs including the Yorkshire Game Fair, the Midland Game Fair and of course, the CLA Gamefair. In 2005 the Club put on a demonstration at the CLA with the general theme of training Irish Water Spaniels for the field, where members fielded 23 working Irish Water Spaniels over the three days. The organisers asked us back again for 2006 where we had even more dogs on display. In 2009 we shall once again be demonstrating in the working gundog ring at the CLA at Belvoir Castle.
The Club also provides a support network for people new (and not so new) to the breed and will assist people in finding litters of working dogs. We also have an established welfare and re-homing service although thankfully, working Irish Water Spaniels generally find very good, caring homes and so this is not a service that is required too frequently.
• To promote and assist in the training of the Irish Water Spaniel to work in the shooting field as an all round, multi-purpose gundog, bearing in mind the breed’s origin as a hunting, retrieving, wildfowling and water dog, whilst recognising its classification by The Kennel Club.
• To organise classes, working tests and field trials, both breed confined and in conjunction with other breed societies and gundog Clubs.
• To provide Irish Water Spaniel owners with practical help and organised events.
• To promote breeding of the pure, sound and healthy Irish Water Spaniel, free from hereditary faults.
• To maintain the description of the true type as approved by the Kennel Club, and to urge breeders to adhere to the published breed standard.
The first working weekend of the modern club, back in April 1990, in Marham, Norfolk. A number of the people in the picture are still active in the breed seventeen years on. 
Radicott Waterbug in the SIWSC team competing in the 2005 Shooting Gazette Minor breeds team gundog test at Catton Park. Team SIWSC were 2nd.
A SIWSC team at Hope Agricultural Show competing in the United Retriever Club's
interbreed team competition in 2005.