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Northwoods Grits: January 2011 – March 2022

Northwoods Grits (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2011) Photo by Chris Mathan

Grits. A perfect name for an extraordinary dog.

Each year Betsy and I choose a theme to use when naming our puppies. Not only is it fun to do but it can help us remember the years and litters. When Grits was whelped, we were training dogs in northwestern Tennessee, a.ka., the Mid South. At a quintessential southern cafe where we stopped for breakfast one morning, grits, biscuits and sweet tea were on the menu. We looked at each other and that was it. We had our theme for 2011. We named the first three puppies we kept, Grits, Biscuit and Sweet Tea.

Though “grits” is actually ground corn, the first four letters defined the dog. According to one definition, grit means “firmness of mind or spirit, unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.”

Grits had that grit. No matter the distance or what might lie in in the way, if Grits thought a bird could be there, he was going to find it. Nothing stopped him—whether handler or terrain—and he had the scars to prove it. From countless fence lacerations and tears, sticks, broken tail, a serious snake bite, nothing stopped Grits.

His personality, like his sire, Northwoods Blue Ox (CH Peace Dale Duke x Blue Silk, 2006), was a 10.  He got along with any dog, male or female, young or old, and had an incredible off switch. In the hunting cabin at night or in our house, he only wanted to be petted.

For as much go as Grits had in the woods, he was lover in our home.

Grits didn’t have one or two outstanding qualities of a bird dog, he had them all. He was an extraordinary bird finder. He was naturally staunch, backed and could find dead birds. Too, he had the conformation, build, carriage, gait, speed and nose.

GRITS AS A YOUNG DOG

Grits was whelped in the first breeding of Northwoods Blue Ox to Northwoods Chablis (Blue Shaquille x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2009) – a breeding repeated five times. He was precocious like Ox and displayed desire and bird finding even as a puppy.

At nine months of age, I had Grits on the ground on a guided grouse hunt out of Bowen Lodge, northwest of Grand Rapids, Minn. I was out with Ken Taylor and Jim DePolo, hunting in a remote area when we heard Grits make a funny sound, like he was hit in the chest. When he came out on the trail, he acted a little dazed but I didn’t find anything obviously wrong. I leashed him and we headed back to the truck.

But after 10 minutes, Grits was straining at the lead, ready to go again. I released him and we hunted our way out. Grits pointed several grouse on the way—one of which Ken shot which was the first grouse killed over Grits.

Back at the lodge Grits cleaned his food bowl (he was a tremendous eater!) and acted normally. But on a hunch that something wasn’t right, I checked on Grits at about 10 p.m. Dr. Wayne Grayson, another hunter at the lodge, took one look and declared he needed to get to a vet. Under sedation, the veterinarian removed a five-inch stick embedded in the back of his throat.

Grouse woods or wide-open prairie, Grits excelled at bird finding and poise.

During Grits’ early years, Frank LaNasa and I had a prairie camp near Forbes, N.D. Frank is a serious and hugely successful amateur breeder, trainer and handler on the horseback circuit. He only works top-tier performers and back then was no exception. I worked him alongside some of Frank’s most accomplished champions, including CH Lil Miss Sunshine, CH Homemade and CH True Confidence, a little known up-and-comer at the time. With all those champions, Grits held his own.

GRITS IN COMPETITION

Betsy and I weren’t competing much when Grits was young, but he did place in several field trials. Most notably he won the Northwest Field Association Open Derby stake, held at the Crow Hassen grounds in Minnesota with three broke finds, a back and a big race. That tail injury (see third paragraph!) unfortunately ended his field trial career but our belief is he would have been extremely competitive in the horseback trials in the piney woods.

Happy owner Bob Senkler poses with his extraordinary brace of setters: Grits, on left, and Houston’s Belle’s Choice, Grits’ grand-dam.

GRITS AS A HUNTING DOG

When Grits was about one year old, we sold him to Bob Senkler, a passionate grouse and woodcock hunter from Minnesota, with the arrangement that Grits lived at our kennel. Grits was a lot more dog than most people would be comfortable with in the woods, but Bob loved it. Grits always found and pointed birds—many times more than 300 yards away. Grits never wanted to quit. When he saw the truck, he’d make one more cast, usually a big one, as he wanted to find one last bird. Often, Bob just waited at the truck until Grits came back.

Grits made a couple trips with me to North Dakota and Montana—and what a prairie dog he was. Even at 10 years of age last fall, he out-ran and out-birded many younger dogs.

I had tremendous hunting with Grits on the prairies of North Dakota and Montana.

For nine years, Grits was part of our Georgia guiding string on several high-end bobwhite quail plantations. Although he ran bigger than most hunters appreciated, one afternoon in 2017 on the Dixie Plantation, Grits soundly out-birded a future National Champion pointer, trained and handled by Gary Lester. 

GRITS AS A PRODUCER

Grits was a tremendous sire for us, producing 78 puppies from litter after litter of talented wild bird dogs. Betsy and I bred him to our best females, including Houston’s Belle’s Choice, Northwoods Carly Simon, Northwoods Carbon, Northwoods Bismuth, Houston’s Nelly Bly, Northwoods Nickel, Northwoods Minerva and Northwoods Stardust; and CH I’m Blue Gert, owned by Dave and Rochel Moore.

We’re grateful to have two daughters, Northwoods Valencia (out of Carly Simon) and Northwoods Gale (out of Minerva), that exhibit his traits. Most of his offspring are owned by very serious hunters but a few have been campaigned. Some daughters of note include Northwoods Rocks A Lot, out of Houston’s Belle’s Choice, owned by Joe Byers, I’m Blue Sky and Northwoods Elle, both out of CH I’m Blue Gert and owned, respectively, by A. J. Kalupa and Tom Beauchamp. In addition, young Northwoods Atlas, out of Northwoods Nickel, owned by Greg Johnson, has already placed in several shooting dog stakes.

Bob’s son, Chris Senkler, kneels with Grits after what turned out be Grits’ final hunt last fall.

IN THE END

Frank LaNasa said it best when he learned of Grits passing.

“As a performer, Grits ranks right up with the very best that I’ve been around. He would have excelled at anything you asked him to do. An exceptional animal in every way a dog could be. All of our dogs eventually die. Truth is we bury more of ourselves with some than we do with others. Grits was one of those few.”

Over the past 30 years, Betsy and I have been blessed to have had incredible dogs, each defining an era. In the early 1990s, we had CH Dance Smartly. Late that decade and into the early 2000s were defined by Ch Blue Streak, CH Blue Smoke and Blue Chief. The mid 2000s brought us CH Houston’s Belle, Blue Shaquille and Northwoods Blue Ox.

Forever, the decade beginning in 2011 is the era of Northwoods Grits.

RIP Grits. We will always remember.