Northwoods Cedar named Runner-Up Champion at the 2025 Invitational
CH/2X RU-CH Northwoods Cedar (RU-CH Erin’s Prometheus x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2019), on right, poses with handler Eric Saetre at the 2025 Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational. Cedar was named Runner Up Champion. Lindsey Saetre helps hold the impressive trophy.
CH/2X RU-CH Northwoods Cedar (RU-CH Erin’s Prometheus x Northwoods Carly Simon, 2019) was named Runner-Up Champion at this spring’s Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational Championship. Cedar is owned by Eric and Lindsey Saetre of Minnesota.
The trial is conducted annually by the Grand National Grouse Championship and is held at various venues around the country. The New England Bird Dog Club hosted this year’s—the 34th—at the Panther Forest Wildlife Reserve near Ellenburg, N.Y.
This prestigious trial is limited to 14 entries making it the smallest championship on the circuit. Yet, it’s arguably the hardest one to win.
First of all, you can’t just enter a dog. The dog has to be invited. Invitations are extended to the top 11 point-earners based on placements in the prior cover dog trial season. Rounding out the 14 dogs are automatic invitations to the previous year’s champion and runner-up and to the Grand National Grouse Championship winner.
Besides the invitation part, the dog has to run in one-hour braces on two consecutive days.
The first day of running, as in any trial, is randomly drawn. But for the second day, the dogs are paired with a different bracemate on a different course and run at a different time of day, i.e., dogs that ran in the morning the first day run in the afternoon on the second day.
After the second day, tension, nerves and excitement are high for handlers, scouts and owners. They’ve all had a fair shot to show their dog. They can’t complain about any of the normal variables in a field trial draw—time of day, course, bracemate, weather. The Invitational format is designed to reduce some of those variables, or, as stated in its Invitational’s Bylaws and Running Rules: “to take as much luck out of the trial as humanly possible.”
The third day’s running includes only the “call-backs” as determined by the two judges. They decide which dogs they want to see, how to pair them and on which course. Again, the braces are one hour long.
All three days of running are considered in the final decision.
With the exception of the third day, the weather this year was problematic. Deep snow restricted range and clogged bells made for difficulty tracking dogs. Cold temperatures were hard on everyone. Those conditions affected the birds, too.
In spite of the weather, Cedar ran consistently and was the only dog to point birds all three days. Her performance and bird-finding earned her placement as Runner-up Champion.
Eric as handler and Lindsey as scout have done an outstanding job with Cedar. Their hard work and dedication fine-tuned Cedar’s genetic ability into a national caliber competitor. Betsy and I are proud of them and wish them the best in the fall trial season and next year when they’re invited back to the 2026 Invitational.
Two other local dogs were invited to this renewal. 2X RU-CH Northwoods Atlas (Northwoods Grits x Northwoods Nickel, 2017), owned by Greg and Michelle Johnson of Wisconsin, was posthumously invited. Lake Affect Allie, owned and handled by Tim Kaufman of Wisconsin, was invited and competed in the trial.
