Celebrating 20 years of breeding
Northwoods Chardonnay (Blue Shaquille x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2009)
What we think, what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
~ John Ruskin
It’s amazing and humbling to think about but 20 years ago today, on June 6, 1995, Betsy and I whelped our first litter. We bred a strong, blocky-headed, handsome black-and-white male English setter to a chestnut-and-white female. Even though she wasn’t pretty, she had a powerful combination of bird-finding and pointing instinct.
Finder’s Keeper (RU-CH Pat’s Blazer Banjo x Spring Garden Rose, 1991)
We never thought that 47 litters and 301 puppies later, we would have created a bird dog business that sustains and fulfills us. For not only did we produce lines of setters and pointers of which we are proud but we formed deep friendships with people from all over the country who share our love of fine bird dogs.
A. G. Murray, Jr., is an attorney and serious bobwhite quail hunter. A.G. and his wife Mary Beth drove from their home in Oklahoma to buy a puppy—a male they named Colonel—from that first litter. Last summer, they again travelled to Minnesota to pick out their fourth setter from us.
~~~~~
Our first litter out of Spring Garden Tollway x Finder’s Keeper produced five males and three females. CH Blue Streak is in the upper right looking at the camera and CH Blue Smoke is in the lower center.
The sire Spring Garden Tollway (Charlie) and dam Finder’s Keeper (Sparks) weren’t our first bird dogs. Charlie was preceded by a Brittany spaniel I purchased in 1980 but it was Charlie with his verve and tenacity that got me hooked on field trials. After buying Charlie in 1987, I was determined to find more good grouse dogs and spent the next seven or so years sorting through a dozen or more dogs—buying puppies and started dogs from the best dogs in the country. I hunted over them and then Betsy and I competed with them but not until we bought Sparks in 1993 did we find a match for Charlie.
CH Blue Streak (Spring Garden Tollway x Finder’s Keeper, 1995)
It was a gut feeling and also perhaps a bit of beginner’s luck but that first breeding of Charlie to Sparks succeeded beyond our expectations. It produced two field trial champions, CH Blue Smoke and 4XCH/4XRU-CH Blue Streak and, essentially, laid the foundation of all that followed. Out of Streak, we got Blue Blossom and Blue Silk. Silk produced our two best sires, Blue Shaquille and Northwoods Blue Ox, and out of those males, we have current dams Chablis, Chardonnay and Carly, and Grits, a wonderful male.
Blue Silk (CH First Rate x CH Blue Streak, 1999) and her sons Northwoods Blue Ox (by CH Peace Dale Duke, 2007) and Blue Shaquille (by Houston, 2004)
~~~~~
Blue Chief was whelped in our second setter litter out of Sparks by CH First Rate in 1996. Chief was a dream come true for me—a big, tri-color male with incredible instincts. Betsy and I learned early that Chief was a pre-potent sire and we found an excellent cross in Blue Blossom. In fact we bred Chief to Blossom three times, our first “nick.”
Blue Chief (CH First Rate x Finder’s Keeper, 1996)
Chief’s reputation grew and he became popular as a stud around the country. He sired 32 litters and produced 11 dogs that won 86 field trial placements. His contribution to the breed is still evident in championship-caliber setters such as CH Conecuh Station’s Pressure Test.
Kevin Sipple, a school superintendent in Wisconsin, bought Elle, a Chief x Blossom female in 2006. He brought her to a grouse camp owned by friends and shared with several serious hunters. Kevin has since purchased another female setter from us and now his five hunting partners have bought our setters, bringing the total number of Northwoods dogs in camp to nine.
~~~~~
CH Dance Smartly (CH Northern Dancer x CH Vanidestine’s Rail Lady, 1991)
But Betsy and I don’t breed only English setters; we’ve carefully and selectively bred pointers, too. In 1997, we bred CH Dance Smartly, our liver-and-white female and first field trial champion, to CH Brooks Elhew Ranger. We kept a male named Dasher that Mark Fouts chose for Fallset Fate, his Elhew-bred female. Out of Dasher and Fate we got Prancer who produced Vixen, our current dam.
Bill and Gail Heig own Bowen Lodge on Lake Winnibigoshish in northern Minnesota. They offer grouse hunts to a select group of hunters and for more than 20 years, I have spent part of each fall working as a guide. Betsy and I will never forget the honor Bill bestowed on us in 1995 by placing the Minnesota Grouse Championship trophy Dancer had just won on the center of the lodge dining table.
Bill has bought many dogs—both setters and pointers—from us for use in his own guiding string. Over the years, guiding customers of his have become our clients and friends.
Northwoods Vixen (CH Westfall’s Black Ice x Northwoods Prancer, 2011)
~~~~~
Another pivotal litter was whelped in 2005. Dr. Paul Hauge is a dentist from Wisconsin who has long been involved in field trials and setters. Not only did Betsy and I campaign his excellent female CH Houston’s Belle but, with Paul, we planned and whelped Belle’s litters.
The sire of that 2005 litter was Gusty Blue, a grandson of our CH Blue Smoke. One of the female puppies was Houston’s Belle’s Choice. She became an exceptional producer, especially when bred to Blue Shaquill—our second “nick.” Choice’s genes, somewhere back in their pedigrees, are in every one of our setters.
Northwoods Grits (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2011) and his granddam Houston’s Belle’s Choice (Gusty Blue x CH Houston’s Belle, 2005) had a good day in the grouse woods with owner Bob Senkler.
A later breeding of Belle to CH Can’t Go Wrong produced an uncommon litter. Every male that was given a chance to compete in field trials won, including RU-CH Land Cruiser Scout and two champions, CH Ridge Creek Cody and CH Houston’s Blackjack.
Betsy and I bred to both Cody and Blackjack but all three have been used as sires by other kennels around the country including Grouse Ridge Kennels, Skydance Kennels, Waymaker Setters and Erin Kennels and Stables.
~~~~~
Even though we focus on setters and pointers used in the pursuit of ruffed grouse and woodcock, Betsy and I are proud that our dogs are bought by hunters throughout North America and in Hawaii and Japan, too. Dogs have been used by their owners—some of whom are professional guides—to hunt most every type of upland bird whether in the woods, mountains and desert or on the prairie.
Northwoods Prancer (Dashaway x Fallset Fate, 2008)
We are also proud to have produced 13 dogs that have won 23 American Field championships or classics with 16 runner-up placements. These titles have come at local, regional and national events, some with more than 80 dogs entered. Our dogs have won on grouse and woodcock, quail, prairie chicken, pheasant, sharptailed grouse and chukar partridge. They have won stakes in every age category and in walking and horseback trials. Importantly, our dogs have won for both the most experienced handlers and the least.
Our dogs have amassed a nice list of national and regional awards:
• Micheal Seminatore English Setter Cover Dog Award
• William Harnden Foster Award
• Elwin G Smith Setter Shooting Dog Award
• Bill Conlin Setter Shooting Dog Derby Award
• 5X Winner/3X R-U Minnesota/Wisconsin Shooting Dog of the Year
• 4X Winner/3X R-U Minnesota/Wisconsin Derby Dog of the Year
~~~~~
Northwoods Rum Rickey (Blue Shaquille x Snyder’s Liz, 2012) and Northwoods G (CH Elhew G Force x Northwoods Vixen, 2013)
Our earliest litters had one clear goal—to breed dogs that could win grouse field trials. But when Betsy and I formed Northwoods Bird Dogs in 2002, we refined our focus. Without losing the athleticism, flair, poise and polish required of championship-level performances, we wanted to produce dogs that had it all—smart, natural wild bird dogs with excellent conformation, superior instincts, wonderful dispositions and that were good-looking, too.
Now, 20 years later, Betsy and I are breeding the seventh generation of setters and fifth generation of pointers. What a rewarding, gratifying journey.