Guildford Working Gundog Club, in its present form, was ratified by The Kennel Club on 1st December 1988 but the Club has been running for far longer than that.  Minutes of meetings from as far back as 1976 are in the Club’s possession.  The original Club was started as the working section of the large and successful Guildford and District Canine Society.  Over the years the showing and working sections grew apart and when an application to The Kennel Club was made to run Field Trials, Guildford Working Gundog Club came into being.  The Club continues to grow and currently numbers nearly 600 members.

The Club now runs Training, Working Tests and Field Trials for all varieties of Retriever.  The first field trial was run in 1991 with the first Open trial being run in 1996.

The right to run a 2-day Open qualifying Field Trial was awarded by The Kennel Club in 2008.  The first 2-day Open Field Trial took place in Autumn 2009 at the Cadland Estate.

Competitions have changed markedly over the last 30 years.  In the early days, the Club ran cold game tests with each competitor having his or her own bird, marked with a label, which would be retrieved by his own dog and which the competitor was allowed to take home at the end of the day.