Through Nick Larson, three littermates meet up this fall

Nick Larson proudly holds a woodcock that his one-year-old Hartley properly pointed and handled.

Small world, lots of connections between grouse hunters and Northwoods Bird Dogs. It’s great to be a part of the crew.
~ Nick Larson

Nick Larson and his wife Lacey MacLean of Duluth, Minnesota, were one of the first to reserve a puppy from our setter litters in 2014. They chose a male out of stellar producer Houston’s Belle’s Choice by Northwoods Grits.

Nick and Lacey named their puppy Hartley.

Nick’s day job is Minnesota & Washington Regional Director for the Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) and this fall, he’s been busy.

In early October, Nick was in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, working at the RGS National Hunt. One of his responsibilities was to act as a guide to teams of competitors.

The two groups we guided last Thursday and Friday claimed 1st and 3rd place in the hunt, with Hartley being a one-dog show. I put us in some good cover, but Hartley did everything else. I really had no idea what to expect with my young dog taking on all that responsibility, but he simply shined. All four guys we hunted with were so impressed with him and we received lots of compliments.
~ Nick Larson

Jamie Byers is a long-time client of ours through guiding grouse hunters out of Bill and Gail Heig’s Bowen Lodge in northern Minnesota. Like Nick, Jamie also was among the first to reserve a setter puppy in 2014 and got the only female out of Grits x Choice. Jamie and his wife Sophie named their puppy Roxy.

Jamie is also a strong supporter of RGS and regularly is part of a team at the National Hunt. He brought Roxy to Grand Rapids this year.

I also met Jamie Byers up there and Hartley got to meet his sister, which was pretty cool.
~ Nick Larson

One-year-old handsome male littermates, Hartley, on left, and Elmer after an October grouse hunt. Hartley is owned and handled by Nick Larson and Elmer is owned by Luke Olson, handled here by Luke’s brother-in-law Chris Bye.

Later in October, Nick and Hartley were in Wisconsin. Nick posted this piece on his Northwoods’R blog, a joint venture with Garrett Mikrut.

One of the most fun stops for me this October was visiting a hunting camp in Wisconsin during the week-long 2015 Ruffed Grouse Society Grouse Camp Tour…What made it even more special for me was that almost everyone in the camp owned at least one English setter out of Northwoods Bird Dogs, one of which was Hartley’s brother.

For the most part, Hartley and his brother acted like brothers do, just as you’d expect! However when we put them down in some cover to run in a brace there was no doubt about what these dogs were born and bred to do.

This littermate of Hartley is owned by Luke Olson and his wife Kjellun (sister of Chris Bye, pictured above), frequent visitors to the grouse camp Nick describes. They also were on the list for a setter puppy out of Grits x Choice and chose a male they named Elmer.

Note:  See my post “New Wood: a special grouse camp” dated November 5 for more on the hunting camp Nick visited.