He has a slim, wiry-framed physique, the eyes of a goshawk, and has gone hard of hearing after decades of .22 blanks. Jerry Kolter wears his t-shirt neatly tucked and his jeans always look new and pressed. They aren’t—evident by worn and faded back pockets from a cell phone and a starter pistol. Spend any amount of time around him and you’ll find that his quiet nature and worn jeans are just a hint of the good-natured man that is Jerry Kolter.

Northwoods Bird Dogs

Jerry and his wife Betsy Danielson live about as far north as you can go in Minnesota and still find some open ground weaved together by lakes, swamps, bogs, and mixed age forests, home to wild birds. The last few of the 356 miles from their place to mine are long, flat, and straight, stretching down Duxbury Road where both sides look the same. I miss their unassuming driveway every time—there isn’t even a sign announcing his kennel until you make a left at their house, where the gravel drive splits. There, you’ll arrive at Northwoods Bird Dogs, the business Jerry and Betsy co-founded and co-own. A place I have come to recognize as equivalent to a bird dog trainers happy hunting ground. If there’s a bird dog heaven here on earth, Jerry Kolter is Saint Peter, keeper of the keys to the Kingdom. For transparency’s sake, I’ll make clear that I’m biased. My year and a half old English setter, Máquina, is a Northwood’s pup and the reason I first met Jerry and Betsy. We’re into our second season in the grouse woods and it’s been comforting to know that I live just over five hours away from relief to most of my concerns. The questions I’ve had aren’t new to him, he’s heard it all before. Many moons ago, he maybe even shared some of the same uncertainties. Once he gets to know you, he shares knowledge generously, and dog training acumen isn’t all I’ve taken from our visits.

There’s another saying, “A pointing dog needs to know just three things: Go with you, come to you, and stand still.” I appreciate the logic and simplicity, but those weren’t my hang-ups. Mine wielded around range, bringing out natural point, and having her understand the delicacy of how close is too close? I wanted to better understand mechanics, timing, and how to effectively use tools like releasers and launchers. Most importantly, the how and why behind it. That’s stuff you can read about or watch as many videos as you want, but won’t truly understand until you see, feel, and do.

On our first visit, Máquina was just six months old and had hardly smelled, much less pointed a pigeon. Besides puppy walks in the woods and bumping a few wild birds, the “bird dog” within her seemed still asleep on the porch. He keeps a notepad in his pocketwith a running order of dogs and jottings for that day. One at a time, he gathered them from their runs. Jerry started that morning working a pointer of his, then several setters between six months and two years old. They all worked a little different but looked greatto me, handling the birds with confidence. It was hard not to watch the dogs, but I make a point to watch him. He reads the dog so well and the level which he works is unwavering. Cool, calm, confident, and collected in every detail and movement made.

Eventually he looked to me and asked, “What do you want to do with Máquina?” I told him with as much confidence as I could gather, “I don’t know?” I explained we had been working on basics like heel, recall, and that I struggled with “letting her go” at times.

He grinned and laughed a little, followed by more questions. That’s another thing about Jerry: He questions things when it comes to training and dogs. I wasn’t sure how to take it at first, until he explained. “Don’t be offended. I’ve been doing this long enough; I question a lot. I want to understand the “why” behind things folks are doing. You’d be surprised how much I learn that way.”

I heeled her to the field edge, settled for a moment, then cut her loose on a sequence of pigeons waiting in his Higgins releasers. They opened remotely with a silent pneumatic arm and he explained, “I like these because they don’t throw the bird. They’re more natural, quiet, and don’t startle young dogs.” Those releasers are effective, but only if, and when, your pup points the birds. Mine ran like a gazelle right through the first, tripped over the second, and for her grand finale, I wouldn’t quite call it a flash point, more of a startled stop before ripping and chasing the poor pigeon.

He saw my disappointment. What I saw in him was no different than when he worked the prior dogs. When things go well or otherwise, he’s got a knack for maintaining a level guise. After 40+ years of bird dogs, I imagine he’s seen about everything. More importantly, he knows what to do when he sees it. That’s confidence in its purest function. He had little concern over what she’d done (or not done) but I was the one with a five-hour drive home to wallow in it, and he knew how badly I needed a win before leaving. When his dogs were done for the day, he moved the releasers and reset the field with two pigeons. Máquina handled them and he said to me with a smile, “There, that’s what we’re looking for... she’s beautiful pointing.” He was fathering in his way of teaching and leading with subtle guidance.

Field Trial English Setters

The sea of upland hunting isn’t overwhelming in size. Upland bird dogs are smaller, grouse and woodcock dogs smaller yet, and the field trial dogs...they’re hardly a puddle by comparison. His first bird dog goes back to 1980, a Brittany named Adrienne. Not long into searching for my first, I started hearing about these “Northwoods dogs.” They started in 1987 when he entered his first English setter, a black and white male named Spring Garden Tollway, in his first grouse trial. That started Jerry and Betsy on a three-decade long field trialing career. They earned more than 150 placements and their dogs have been winners or runners-up in 14 regional Shooting Dog/ Derby of the Year awards. They’ve placed in every major grouse championship in the nation and won with a dog named Blue Streak (4x CH/4xRU-CH) that he and Betsy bred in 1995, earning the Michael Seminatore English setter Cover Dog Award and the William Harnden Foster Award in 2002.

Finding out about his winning takes some digging. Ask him about the plaques and awards that hang inconspicuously on the wall in their kennel office, search the internet, or ask someone who knows him, because Jerry’s not one that boasts. More impressive than his record is that in all those years, with all that success, I’ve yet to find a single person that has anything negative to say about them, or how they did it. All I’ve heard from those that know and have competed against him is respect and admiration. If you ask Jerry about it, he’ll tell you about the dogs. He speaks of them with reverence and can recite pedigrees with precision, like they were still in his kennel today.

I’m not so sure that the competitor in Jerry will ever completely go away. After tailgate tales of his cover dog experience, it becomes contagious. I developed symptoms and he recommended I read Field Trials: History, Management and Judging Standards by William F. Brown as the medicine. He told me, “That book is the bible of the game, as it was originally intended.” Although he’s no longer competing firsthand, he gives back to a world that gave to him by judging and inspiring others like me to take part. His “wins” still come as the “Northwoods” prefix consistently shows up on the pedigrees of champions. The way he explains it is simple: “Winning field trials isn’t our goal with breeding, it’s a consequence.” The best way I can explain a Northwoods Bird Dog is simple too: great family dogs, that make even greater hunting dogs, capable of competing in any wild bird trial in the country.

A Life-Long Learner

I’ve yet to find a book about bird dogs he doesn’t have or has not read. He took advanced college courses in statistics and probability just to better understand genetic predictability, and their puppies are the result of a combination of knowledge, experience, discernment, and gut feel. All stuff that cannot be bought but is built over time. Now into their eighth generation of English setters and sixth generation of pointers, they’d be the first to tell you that they are still learning.
Besides answers, Jerry has given me the confidence to “do it” rather than just “think about it.” The last time we talked, he shared with me two things he can guarantee when it comes to his setters. He said, “They will always run bigger the older they get, and they’ll all get more cautious around birds.” Relieved...I wanted to ask, “where was that information a year ago?” I suppose it’s just part of paying my dues.