Northwoods Bird Dogs was founded in 2002 by husband-and-wife team Jerry Kolter and Betsy Danielson. The business evolved from their passionate hobby of field trial competition and quickly propelled the couple into breeding English setters and pointers. In 2005, Jerry and Betsy turned their part-time endeavor to a year-round, full-time business and, along the way, developed renowned training programs and expanded their guiding business.
CH Dance Smartly (CH Northern Dancer x CH Vanidestine’s Rail Lady, 1991)
FIELD TRIALS
Their early focus had been solely on winning grouse field trials. With Jerry as handler and Betsy as scout, they campaigned in and traveled to trials in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Their first champion was female pointer 2X CH Dance Smartly (CH Northern Dancer x 6X CH Vanidestine’s Rail Lady, 1991) in 1995. She was soon followed by CH Blue Smoke (Spring Garden Tollway x Finder’s Keeper, 1995) and his litter sister 4X CH/4X RU-CH Blue Streak.
In 2002, Jerry and Betsy took Streak to the peak of national success and recognition. She won both the Michael Seminatore English Setter Cover Dog Award and the William Harnden Foster Award. As a fitting denouement to her career, Streak, at age 10½, added one last placement. She was named Runner Up Champion in the Grand National Grouse Championship.
In addition to campaigning their own dogs, Jerry and Betsy trained and competed a hand-picked female from a special litter out of Paul Hauge’s favorite dog, Houston. From 2005 – 2007, 2xCH/4xRU-CH Houston’s Belle dominated the national field trial circuit.
Jerry and Betsy won placements in more than 150 field trials and placed in every major grouse championship in the nation, often multiple times.
RU-CH Northwoods Atlas x Houston’s Nelly Bly Puppies, 2023
PUPPIES
With the notion that they knew the type of dogs they wanted to win with, Jerry and Betsy began breeding their own dogs in 1995. Their first setter litter was a fortuitous pairing that produced both CH Blue Streak and CH Blue Smoke. They chose CH Dance Smartly, their pointer champion, as the dam for the first pointer breeding in 1997.
The breeding program that began with a singular goal of winning field trials quickly blossomed. Both setter and pointer puppies were produced and sold via word of mouth not only to field trialers but to ardent hunters. The word radiated from the Midwest to the rest of the country, and now, some 80 litters and 500 puppies later, Jerry and Betsy are producing their eighth of generation of setters and sixth generation of pointers.
Over the years, there have been several famous setter nicks, including Blue Chief x Blue Blossom, Blue Shaquille x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis and Erin’s Prometheus x Northwoods Carly Simon. Many dams have contributed to the Northwoods’ line. Among them are Northwoods Carbon, Northwoods Chardonnay, Northwoods Nickel, Northwoods Minerva, Northwoods Valencia and Houston’s Belle.
The pointer line continues from CH Dance Smartly through her son Dasher and down through subsequent females Northwoods Prancer, Northwoods Vixen and Northwoods Comet.
Northwoods Vixen (CH Westfall’s Black Ice x Northwoods Prancer, 2011)
TRAINING
Development and refinement of the training programs happened organically over the course of years. What started as solo sessions between Jerry and his early dogs changed when Betsy joined him. They not only trained almost daily on nearby land but they traveled on weekends to national forests and grasslands. Their goal was always working their dogs on wild birds.
Jerry studied training methods by reading the best of the old-time trainers as well as new ones. He also traveled to learn in person from Sherry Ray Ebert, Bill Gibbons, Rick Smith and Roger Buddin.
As a result of this extensive exposure and learning, Jerry developed his own approach to training. “The Natural Way” has successfully trained hundreds of pointing dogs.
Blue Shaquille (Houston x Blue Silk, 2004) with guiding clients
GUIDED HUNTS
Jerry and Betsy’s first grouse guiding gig was in 1995 at Bowen Lodge, northwest of Grand Rapids, Minn. They arrived at the lodge at midnight in a severe thunderstorm that had knocked out power to all the cabins. Serendipitously, though, in the truck with them was their newly crowned grouse champion, Dance Smartly, and her big silver trophy.
Jerry continues to guide grouse hunts for Bowen Lodge some 28 years later.
In addition, Jerry and Betsy developed a guiding operation out of their kennel for grouse and woodcock hunts. From their winter location in the Red Hills region of northern Florida/southwestern Georgia, Jerry handles dogs on bobwhite quail hunts.
