Nick Larson, on left, and his hunting partner Garrett Mikrut, on right, were joined for a day of grouse hunting by Sam Cook, center, Outdoors writer for the Duluth New Tribune, who also reported on the hunt. Photo by northwoodsr.com.
What a cool idea. Nick Larson and his friend, Garrett Mikrut, recently completed a grouse hunter’s dream—seven days pursuing ruffed grouse across its northern Minnesota range. They traveled from Duluth, Two Harbors and Ely to Hackensack. Completing the hunting party were two German shorthairs owned by Mikrut and a 4½-month-old English setter puppy, Hartley, owned by Nick and his wife, Lacey MacLean.
Thanks to Nick Larson’s passion and dedication, his English setter puppy Hartley has gained invaluable experience in the woods this fall. Photo by northwoodsr.com.
Hartley is out of our Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice litter, which is how Jerry and I met Nick and Lacey. Whether through breeding, training or guiding, we come across many, many people interested in bird dogs and bird hunting but those as passionate as Nick are rare.
In addition to their exploits in the field together, Nick and Garrett maintain a lively blog, Northwoods’R, with beautiful photographs and posts about hunting, fishing and dogs. http://www.northwoodsr.com/
We still store the traps Jerry used when he was young. The collection includes snare, leg-hold and Conibear traps as well as the necessary chains and stakes. The large trap in front is the 220 Conibear that caught Jerry’s Brittany spaniel in 1985.
Jerry will never forget the day in 1985 when he saved the life of his first bird dog, a female Brittany spaniel. While pheasant hunting in the river bottoms of southern Minnesota, he heard a brief, odd, exhaling yelp and then nothing. The sight was horrific. His dog’s neck was caught in the jaws of a 220 Conibear trap.
After a moment of panic and a good kick of adrenaline, he worked quickly, cursing a broken safety catch on one side, and pried the trap open. She was free but not breathing and her gums and tongue had turned blue. Jerry performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as the final step.
Fortunately for the dog, Jerry knew about traps and CPR.
From the ages of 11 to 18 years of age, Jerry was a trapper. He used Conibear (although never as large as a 220), snare and leg hold traps, matching trap to quarry—whether fox, raccoon, mink, beaver or muskrat. As required by law, he walked his trap lines every day during the season with a wicker pack basket on his back and gained valuable knowledge about the intricate workings of many kinds and sizes of traps.
Even though Jerry and I haven’t known of any dogs—either ours or dogs owned by friends and clients—killed in traps, we do know of some who were injured. But dogs do die as Doug Smith, outdoor writer for the Twin Cities-based Star Tribune, reported in a piece on January 15, 2013. http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/187053051.html
We think it behooves all hunters to become familiar with the types of traps they might encounter and how to free a trapped animal.
Snare Trap
Cut the wire (Carry a Leatherman or other tool capable of cutting wire.)
Leg-hold Trap
Step on the spring(s) and the trap will release.
Conibear, also called Body Grip Trap
Print the instructions from the website below and carry with you, along with heavy-duty zip ties as specified at the bottom of the document. http://www.mntrappers.org/_fileCabinet//bodygrip.pdf
Another life-saving technique that worked for Jerry and his Brittany spaniel is CPR. In addition to resuscitating a dog from a trap, CPR can be useful in other emergency situations. http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/cat_dog.html
Many thanks to Chris Bye for the idea of this post.
The play story in the Outdoors Weekend section of today’s Star Tribune, “For the love of bird dogs,” features Northwoods Bird Dogs. Outdoors columnist Dennis Anderson wrote the piece after he visited the kennel and hunted over Shaq and Oscar last week. He also shot the photographs.
Dennis has written about Jerry twice before but those articles centered on training and developing pointing dogs. This time he focused on the background of our business and the significance of our breeding program.
Dennis is an excellent writer no matter whether he’s taking on tough conservation issues or reporting on a fishing trip to a northern lake. I’ve always especially liked his pieces that are essay-like in style and cover subjects not necessarily outdoors-oriented.
In the final paragraphs when Jerry releases Oscar from a grouse point, Dennis perfectly captures the desire of our dogs to find and point birds: “Racing ahead, and quickly up to speed, Oscar was intent on finding still another bird. It’s what he lives for.”
The main photo by Dennis is good, too. Shaq is as fine a bird dog as we’ve owned and Dennis caught the handsome head and breath-taking composure on point.
Most of the dogs we sell are as much beloved pets as stalwarts in the woods and fields. Northwoods Grits (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2011) is large for a lap dog but manages to get plenty of attention from Chris Senkler.
Even though Jerry and I focus on breeding bird dogs used in the pursuit of ruffed grouse and woodcock, families who buy dogs from us hunt other birds. In fact, September found many hunters and their dogs heading west to the prairies of North Dakota and Montana. (First group of photographs.)
September is still a busy training month for Jerry and Dan…..and there’s almost no place they’d rather be than out in the woods and fields training bird dogs.
The CH Shadow Oak Bo x Northwoods Chardonnay puppies and three neighbors out of Northwoods Rum Rickey by Northwoods Parmigiano watch kennel activities.
Then, of course, I must include photographs of puppies. Our two August-born litters are coming of age and ready to go to their new owners. The last group of photographs is from buyers of 2014 litters. These puppies are getting plenty of play time with their new families and their first introductions to birds and hunting.
Jack (Houston’s Blackjack x Northwoods Highclass Kate, 2013) after a long Sunday, with the afternoon’s work on the tailgate! ~ Barry Frieler
This was Finn’s (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2014) first-ever pointed wild bird – cold, wet and windy in endless native grasses 5 miles from the northeastern corner of Montana. It was a short point; but an excellent find and retrieve right to hand. PRICELESS! ~ Todd Wiedmann
Look who I ran into out in Montana! ~ Joe Montgomery (on right) owner of Buddy (Elhew G Force x Northwoods Vixen, 2013), on finding another long-time friend/client of ours, A. G. Murray, Jr., from Oklahoma, who is now on the fourth NBD-bred setter.
Piper (Blue Riptide x Blue Ghost, 2010, on right) still ranged, but was in control and purposeful and she was the same bird-finding machine she is in the grouse woods. Roy (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2012) is an extremely good “warm weather” dog, and everyone who hunted behind him wanted him or a puppy from him. ~ Chris Bye
What a pretty sight! Jerry often braces two dogs together because it offers many training opportunities. Occasionally, he runs three dogs, especially when one is experienced. Morris (Houston’s Blackjack x Northwoods Chardonnay, 2011), on left, has a beautiful find on a wild covey of sharptails. Veteran setter Choice (Gusty Blue x Houston’s Belle, 2005) and derby Smooch (Elhew G Force x Northwoods Vixen, 2013) honor Morris’ point.
From the age of eight weeks, we put puppies on the training barrel for initial lessons in whoa training. Five-month-old Northwoods Platinum (Elhew G Force x Northwoods Prancer, 2014) shows extraordinary poise and composure.
During one of those perfect mornings to be running dogs on the prairie, Frank LaNasa flushes for his multiple champion Homemade (on right), who is backed by Lucy (Westfall’s Black Ice x Northwoods Prancer, 2011).
Franny (Northwoods Blue Ox x Houston’s Belle, 2010), on left, and Gus (Blue Shaquille x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2011) score a divided find on sharp-tailed grouse in a scrub oak patch on the barrens.
I took Frisco (Blue Riptide x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2014) out for her first walk in the wild last weekend. We found grouse immediately and she got her first taste of feathers. She was not going to give up the grouse and ran around showing off with a lot of pride. So let the training begin….which will be all fun! ~ Rick Buchholz
We took Ellie (Northwoods Grits x I’m Blue Gert, 2014) for a walk at the club today and she backed Betty…..pointing what turned out to be a covey of 20 chukkar that must have been released last week. When they flushed Ellie went charging in the woods and was pretty amped up on the scent. ~ Tom Beauchamp
Elmer (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014) continues to do well… everyone who meets him comments that 1) his name is very fitting; 2) he is so nice and sweet and calm; 3) he’s soo soft!! ~ Kjellrun Olson
Boatswain (Blue Riptide x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2014) is doing great, doing just what puppies should—tearing up anything he can get his mouth around, and exploring and learning lots everyday! He seems to be a natural retriever, because he is always carrying something around in his mouth and loves to come show it off. ~ Ben Whitten
Roxy (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014) has been an outstanding addition to our family. She is full of life and our children absolutely love her. ~ Joe Byers
The very first covey of three grouse we ran into, Hartley (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014) clearly indicated he scented birds. He was very excited and attempting to bust through some very thick cover on his own…I know he’s still very young and I just want him to have fun out there, which he did. ~ Nick Larson
CH Houston’s Blackjack (CH Can’t Go Wrong x CH Houston’s Belle, 2008). Photo by Ben McKean.
CH Houston’s Blackjack was recently acquired by Dr. Paul Hauge from Jack’s co-owners, Frank LaNasa and Leroy Peterson. Jack is a six-year-old setter male out of Paul’s 2X CH/4X RU-CH Houston’s Belle by CH/RU-CH Can’t Go Wrong, so it’s a very cool and fitting purchase.
Frank handled Jack on the horseback shooting dog circuit and earned placements in many trials, including a championship and runner-up championship.
Paul placed Jack with Luke Eisenhart, a professional handler in all-age horseback field trials. Luke is one of the best and was the Purina Top All-Age Handler in both 2012 and 2013. Luke will enter Jack in wild bird trials in the Dakotas, in addition to quail trials in the southeast.
The all-age circuit is the highest level and most demanding of pointing dog field trials. It takes a special dog to to compete with the likes of two-time National Champion, Shadow Oak Bo, a setter, and many, many winning pointers.
Elmer (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014).
If Jerry and I could sum up the summer of 2014 in one word, it would be “puppies.” With the exception of the Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis puppy in early spring, never have our litters occurred so closely together and so late in the year.
As it turns out, though, summer is a wonderful season to raise a puppy. Besides the general relaxing of rules and moods, kids are out of school and have time on their hands. Parents take holidays from work and vacations are planned—many to cabins and other rustic venues where dogs are welcome.
It’s been fun for us to spend time with the new puppy owners, some of whom are old friends. We’re thankful for owners who spare no expense when a puppy flies off to its new home and we’re thankful, too, for families who drive hours—and from as far away as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Texas—to pick up their puppy.
Most of all, we’re grateful to all the families for their warmth and loyalty and for the good life they’ll give their new puppies.
I can’t believe I got one of your dogs. ~ Jeff, owner of Bates (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014)
We recently returned from a week-long vacation at a lake cabin, and Timber enjoyed all that the new environment had to offer. At one point there were a total of 7 dogs running around, and he wanted to play with every one of them! He learned to enjoy playing in the water with the other dogs…..he has shown a lot of enthusiasm for jumping into the water to retrieve sticks and his retrieving dummy. ~ Keith, owner of Timber (CH Elhew G Force x Northwoods Prancer, 2014)
The puppy is doing great. He handled the 2-day trip home like a veteran. He gets along well with the other dogs…..he and our other male are great pals. ~ Mike, owner of Charlie (Blue Riptide x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2014)
So in love with our little Belle. She is the sweetest puppy we have ever met. Belle is so well behaved and a Miss Social butterfly. Thank you so much again for this darling puppy. ~ Robby, owner of Belle (Blue Riptide x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2014)
We are very impressed with her natural abilities so far. We have thrown pretty much 2 dozen balls each day and she retrieves them to hand. When the older dog goes on point she naturally stops as well with a high tail. We are very pleased with our new hunting companion and look forward to many years of memories that we will share with you. ~ Rick, owner of Frisco (Blue Riptide x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2014)
Elmer is doing very well. From the very beginning, he has been sleeping well in his crate and he never cries. We’re working on some basic commands and he learned to come right away. We walk our daughter to school every morning and Elmer has been enjoying that along with all of the activity at the school. All in all, he is absolutely fantastic and we all love our new family member. ~ Kjellrun, owner of Elmer (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2014), pictured with Northwoods Roy Roy (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chablis, 2012)
Wanted to let you know that Hartley, Lacey and I are still having loads of fun together! I loved watching him try to climb steps for the first time as he was a little unsure of it. I helped him once or twice but each time I walked up the steps myself, and without encouragement, I let him figure out how to follow me. A half day later and he was going up and down no problem. He’s a fantastic dog and we can’t commend you both enough on your dogs and breeding program. ~ Nick, owner of Hartley (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle Choice, 2014)
The ride home went really well….spent the afternoon playing in the yard and getting used to the kennel / house. She is already running in and out of her doggie door in the outside kennel (very cool and unexpected). We brought her in the house for the night about 90 minutes ago… we put her in the (inside) kennel and she started to cry a little…..it was a solid 30 minutes of puppy screaming, but she wore herself out and now she’s sound asleep…..we are head-over-heels in love / happy. ~ Joe, owner of Roxy (Northwoods Grits x Houston’s Belle Choice, 2014)
Our little puppy is getting big! 24 weeks and as of 2 days ago – 38 lbs. Everything is going very well! Right now focusing on WHOA command, birds, scent points instead of sight points, and continuing to slowly intro the gun. I have 40 young pheasants and 10 bobwhites that I’m working him through the rest of summer before we head to NE MT to chase sharptails. Then back in MN woods to hopefully rustle up some real grouse. Looking forward to having fun with him in the field and woods…and watching him develop this fall. ~ Todd, owner of Finn (Northwoods Blue Ox x Northwoods Chardonnay, 2014)
CH Ridge Creek Cody (CH Can’t Go Wrong x CH Houston’s Belle, 2008)
Jerry and I received horrific, heart-breaking news from North Dakota. During the morning of Saturday, August 9, Ridge Creek Cody and several other dogs drowned while on a conditioning run from a four-wheeler. Cody was owned by Larry Brutger of St. Cloud, Minnesota, and trained and handled by Shawn Kinkelaar on the horseback shooting dog circuit.
Nine other dogs perished including 6X CH/7X RU-CH Hot Topic, 2X CH Royal Rocks Mr. Thumper and Handsome Harry Hardcash.
Ridge Creek Cody was whelped in 2008 out of two grouse champions, Can’t Go Wrong x Houston’s Belle. Paul Hauge, Belle’s owner, and Jerry were the brains behind the breeding. Jerry had competed against Can’t Go Wrong on the grouse trial circuit and was extremely impressed with his fluid gait and extraordinary ability to find and point ruffed grouse. Too, Jerry campaigned Belle to all of her championships and knew her strengths.
We both remember the day Larry picked up Cody as an eight-week-old puppy. As little Cody romped around the kennel office, Larry talked of his plans for training and competition. That first year, Jerry took Cody to our camp in North Dakota and worked him on the vast prairies. Matt Eder further developed Cody but it was Shawn Kinkelaar who took on Cody and fully realized the dog’s potential.
Cody was a 3X champion and one-time runner-up champion.
2014: Midwest Open Shooting Dog Championship
2012: National Amateur Pheasant Shooting Dog Championship
2011: Idaho Open Shooting Dog Championship
2011: All American Open Shooting Dog Championship (Runner-up)
In addition, Cody was the Bill Conlin Setter Shooting Dog Derby Award Winner (2009-2010) and placed third in the United States Quail Shooting Dog Futurity, a rare accomplishment for a setter.
Among trainers, handlers, judges and fellow competitors, all agreed that Cody had supreme athleticism—a skill level on par with Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
Cody had become an extremely popular sire and his progeny were just starting to be recognized. Jerry and I bred Northwoods Chardonnay (Blue Shaquille x Houston’s Belle’s Choice, 2009) to Cody in 2013. We’ve stayed in contact with most of the puppy buyers and trained five, even though the clients are near and far. It was a stellar litter.
• Piper: owned by Larry’s friend Chuck Brandes, St. Cloud
• Willow: Gregg Knapp, Wisconsin
• Charlie: Bill Owen, California
• Zada: Tom Condon, Montana
• Stoeger : Drew Milles, Minnesota
• Mazie: Scott Harness, Minnesota
• Rae: David Larson, Minnesota
That Cody was a rare champion with desire and ability is obvious but when he stayed with Larry, he was a cool, calm house dog.
What a tragic loss—not only to the Brutger’s and not only to the field trial world where a valiant competitor is respected but to the English setter world at large.
The Washington Post recently published an interesting story, “What our cats and dogs say about our politics,” by Aaron Blake. Together with The Post’s Graphics Editor Christopher Ingraham and data from the American Veterinary Medical Association, Blake discovered a remarkable similarity between dog vs. cat states and conservative vs. liberal states.
In other words, the dog vs. cat map of the country looks much like the red vs. blue map of the 2012 election.
In a related piece on Wonkblog, Roberto A. Ferdman and Ingraham (who also previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center) extrapolate further:
“We all know there are only two types of people in the world: cat people and dog people. But data from market research firm Euromonitor suggest that these differences extend beyond individual preferences and to the realm of geopolitics: it turns out there are cat countries and dog countries, too.”
I don’t know the political leanings of many of our clients but, obviously, I do know that all are dog people. Further, a large percentage live with multiple numbers of dogs. While the initial intent was upland bird hunting, these dogs of our clients live, for the most of the year, as beloved pets.
Many thanks to my friend Jan Streiff for telling me about this story. She is a cat person but has grown quite fond of our dogs.
