diff --git a/pysolr.py b/pysolr.py
index 59b4fcbd..b5e700bd 100644
--- a/pysolr.py
+++ b/pysolr.py
@@ -191,6 +191,9 @@ def safe_urlencode(params, doseq=0):
     which can't fail down to ascii.
     """
     if IS_PY3:
+        for key, val in params.items():
+            if isinstance(val, bool):
+                params[key] = str(val).lower()
         return urlencode(params, doseq)
 
     if hasattr(params, "items"):
@@ -300,6 +303,16 @@ def __iter__(self):
             result = result._next_page_query and result._next_page_query()
 
 
+def get_nested(obj, keys, default=None):
+    """Nested key lookup for a dict-like object."""
+    try:
+        for k in keys:
+            obj = obj[k]
+        return obj
+    except KeyError:
+        return default
+
+
 class Solr(object):
     """
     The main object for working with Solr.
@@ -528,7 +541,7 @@ def _update(
         path_handler = handler
         if self.use_qt_param:
             path_handler = "select"
-            query_vars.append("qt=%s" % safe_urlencode(handler, True))
+            query_vars.append("qt=%s" % handler)
 
         path = "%s/" % path_handler
 
@@ -830,11 +843,17 @@ def search(self, q, search_handler=None, **kwargs):
         response = self._select(params, handler=search_handler)
         decoded = self.decoder.decode(response)
 
-        self.log.debug(
-            "Found '%s' search results.",
-            # cover both cases: there is no response key or value is None
-            (decoded.get("response", {}) or {}).get("numFound", 0),
-        )
+        if decoded.get("grouped"):
+            group_key = next(iter(decoded["grouped"]))
+            self.log.debug(
+                "Found results grouped by '%s' with %d matches",
+                group_key,
+                decoded["grouped"][group_key]["matches"],
+            )
+        else:
+            self.log.debug(
+                "Found %d docs", get_nested(decoded, ["response", "numFound"], 0)
+            )
 
         cursorMark = params.get("cursorMark", None)
         if cursorMark != decoded.get("nextCursorMark", cursorMark):
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 7a7ed5af..9f23b9b1 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 
 import datetime
+import json
 import random
 import time
 import unittest
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@
     clean_xml_string,
     force_bytes,
     force_unicode,
-    json,
+    get_nested,
     safe_urlencode,
     sanitize,
     unescape_html,
@@ -72,6 +73,9 @@ def test_safe_urlencode(self):
             "test=Hello \u2603!&test=Helllo world!",
         )
 
+        # Boolean options for Solr should be in lowercase.
+        self.assertTrue("True" not in safe_urlencode({"group": True}))
+
     def test_sanitize(self):
         self.assertEqual(
             sanitize(
@@ -101,6 +105,12 @@ def test_force_bytes(self):
     def test_clean_xml_string(self):
         self.assertEqual(clean_xml_string("\x00\x0b\x0d\uffff"), "\x0d")
 
+    def test_get_nested(self):
+        doc = {"a": {"b": {"c": 2023}}}
+        self.assertEqual(get_nested(doc, ["a", "e"]), None)
+        self.assertEqual(get_nested(doc, ["a"]), doc["a"])
+        self.assertEqual(get_nested(doc, ["a", "b", "c"]), doc["a"]["b"]["c"])
+
 
 class ResultsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_init(self):