The Spanish Water Dog (perro de agua español) breed is used in Spain as a general purpose sheepdog and guard.

The nose, eye-rims and paw pads are the same colour as the darkest part of the coat or darker.

They have very strong natural herding and guarding instincts, leading them to become the "self-appointed" guardians of their homes.

Their athleticism and extremely hard working nature leads them to excel at any number of tasks.

Recent health testing has uncovered the following issues: Originally there were three separated populations of SWD in Spain with somewhat different phenotypes and sizes.

The other group could be found in the marshes of western Andalusia; this type of dogs had coats made of long and thin cords.