The Black Warrior Retriever Club of Alabama would like to welcome all retriever enthusiasts to our website. A group of retriever owners, handlers and trainers met in 1999 to organize a central Alabama retriever club and to submit a membership application to the American Kennel Club. BWRC held their first licensed hunt test on April 6, 7 and 8, 2001 at the State Cattle Ranch in Greensboro, AL.

The BWRC has had the good fortune to be able to hold all of their hunt tests and field trials at Forever Wild Field Trial Area.  The Department of Corrections owned this working catfish and cattle ranch until 2008 when Forever Wild and the State Lands Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources purchased the land and facilities at the State Cattle Ranch. This property includes 4300 acres of prairie grasslands, mixed pine-hardwood forests and numerous ponds.  It is rolling terrain in the prairie lands of the Alabama Black Belt, so-called for its rich black prairie soil.

The club consists of members at all levels of training from junior hunt test dogs to field trial champions. Membership consists of many Master National Qualifiers, judges, retriever owners, hunters and trainers. Most members live in the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas as well as across much of central, south and west Alabama.

In 2009 the BWRC wished to honor one of the founding members, Dr. Tom Moore who was instrumental in organizing the club. In turn the Dr. Thomas D. Moore Memorial Traveling Trophy was established. In 2009 the first recipient of the Trophy was Ken Wood and his Labrador Retriever. The recipient of the traveling trophy will also be awarded a half sized replica for permanent possession. These replicas are casts of a hand carved decoy which has been hand painted. Dr. Moore, professor emeritus of business economics at the University of Alabama, passed away on Oct. 9, 2001. 

The club continues to grow and now holds two licensed hunt tests and two field trials every year. In the past the club has held judge’s seminars as well as training seminars and training days at various locations. Black Warrior Retriever Club will be hosting the Master National Hunt Test in 2012.