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In truffle dog training you will come across the whole spectrum – different breeds from different countries and all manner of learning and hunting styles. Where the similarities seem to lie are in the problems that we have when we are training. Many of you will be able to relate to the setbacks, witnessing dogs running off, losing interest, or struggling with transitions. .

Right now, I am in the process of training Jessie, an 11-month-old lagotto. Up until last week, we really weren’t making a great deal of progress. I had started her out in the field after three months of indoor and outdoor training. Some days, we worked alone, other times she would go out with the older dogs. Occasionally she would watch those dogs as they hunted and I would try to involve her. For the most part, though, Jessie was not concerned with the truffling aspect of these trips. She spent her time in the forest running around in a state of wild excitement, trying her best to distract the more sensible dogs from their task.

Every single morning I took her out for a good run in the morning hoping this would take the edge off her excitement. Then every afternoon, we would go truffle hunting for two hours. Basically my strategy was very unsophisticated:

Be consistent

Be very persistent

Be very patient

I had no plan B so I followed my tactic doggedly, hoping that it would be enough. After three weeks, I was beginning to question myself as there was very little difference in the dog’s overall behaviour.

Then one day, Jessie simply changed tact. She jumped out of the car and whereas she usually disappeared into a nearby field, instead on this day she ran into the forest and got down to work. And that’s not all. Within a minute, she had found a large cluster of truffles totalling 700 grams. Happy times! For a moment I forgot myself and began to feel smug about solving the problem. It did ,after all, seem we had made a huge breakthrough.

Of course, the celebration was short-lived. The very next day, we returned to the very same spot, at the same time with the same dogs. Although I had to tried to vary the scenario as little as possible, the result was entirely different. The environment had changed ever so slightly… there was a pair of goat horns on the ground. That small change was enough to entirely disrupt that day’s session. The Jessie who had given such an amazing performance just the previous day was gone. No amount of coaxing could bring that wonderful dog back. In her place was an excitable puppy who just wanted to play. And that is what she did. She ran around with the horns in her mouth for the best part of an hour, circling the other dogs, showing off her find. It was entertaining, I’ll grant you, but it was also a humbling reminder of the unpredictable nature of dog training.

Most trainers will know this feeling of a sudden regression when you thought your dog was coming along so nicely. I know of countless truffle pup prodigies who just lost interest overnight and the confusion this causes. How much easier it would make truffle dog training if the dog would just learn the behaviour and replicate it every day from then on. In reality, the time line is a little more complicated. Whether the student is human or canine, the way we learn rarely seems to be a linear process We all go tentatively forward but then we take steps back and very often we will go around in circles. These plateaus and periods of regression are inevitable. It is simply the way of the learning curve. We can’t get ahead of ourselves in training and this can be hard as our brains seem to want to take advantage of the momentum and hurry on to the next step.

Fortunately for our impatient brains, there is more for the trainer to do more than to simply sit back and wait for the dog to move forward again. While the learning process is inherently beset with ups and downs, there are also many external factors which can cause fluctuations in the dog’s progress. It is the trainer’s job to monitor, analyse and tweak these variables. To get out of a slump, start keeping track of your dog’s behaviour.

Take notes on every training session as this will help you identify which factors affect your dog’s learning. Then you can adjust your training programme accordingly.

Start by looking at timing and how that impacts performance. Humidity and temperature rise and fall over the course of the day and this affects the strength of the truffle aromas. If the scent of the truffle is weak, the task of detecting them may be too difficult for the dog. When the task is too hard, this can quickly lead to boredom which in turn leads to an unfocused dog. Experiment with the times of the day when you hunt and see how your dog responds. You should also take weather conditions into account. If the forest is very wet or if it is a windy day, it will be more difficult for the dog to pick up scents. Keep an eye on ground conditions too. Write everything down.

When you find a time that suits your dog, use that to your advantage. Dogs thrive on consistency and repetition,

You also need to take into account the fact that the start of the truffle season can be difficult for beginners. These first truffles are usually immature and so less fragrant. Finding these early truffles often requires an experienced nose and personally, I use this time to hone the detection skills of our older dogs. For novices, field training begins later on, when the season is well underway. When the task is manageable you will find it is easier for the dog to stay motivated.

If changing the time you train does not alter the dog’s learning, consider the dog’s mood. Dogs’ motivation levels will fluctuate, this could depend on health or their mood on any given day. Just as we experience distractions when not in the right mindset, dogs can be similarly affected. We play computer games rather than doing our taxes. Jessie plays with ram horns or barks at tortoises rather than getting down to work.

Understanding variations in your dog’s mood will help you work out how best to get them motivated. Are they less energetic at certain times of the day? Do they respond better to training before feeding? Experiment and work out which motivators enhance their engagement. Perhaps you need to rethink or raise the quality of the dog’s reward. Whatever the case, as you spend more time with your dog, you will get a better understanding of their personality and moods and use this to your advantage in your training sessions. Again keeping notes will help you recognise patterns.

As you are a team now, you need to think in terms of how you work together. You cannot separate the dog’s failures from your own behaviour and techniques. Maybe you are unknowingly affecting the dog’s mood, I often see how my own energy levels directly influence the dog. Sometimes we seem to be on the same page, other times we are totally out of synch. My feelings of boredom or frustration have an effect on Jessie, whereas if I stay objective and try to just go with it, the session is invariably more successful.

Observing and analysing and tweaking are all well and good but ultimately the key reason for the ups and downs in training is that there has not yet been enough reinforcement. In truffle training, the key is to keep doing the reps. It is through repetition that you will see the real progress. You need to be doing this really regularly if you are serious about training your dog.

In the meantime, it is up to you as the trainer to find your own motivation and to keep on going despite the inevitable hiccups. Be patient and respect the dog’s moods but be persistent. Don’t veer from the task. Keep your own motivation high by seeing the whole venture as a challenge. Get curious and clinically examine what happens during each session. By doing this, you create some distance from the emotional side of training and are less likely to succumb to the pitfall of disappointment. By being analytical you can objectively look at what you might need to change. You will keep note of factors that were different today – a good day, compared to yesterday, the day when everything went south. Were there any controllable outside influences? Paying attention to your dog’s responses helps you to tailor the training sessions to the individual dog. Don’t forget that this is one of the greatest benefits of undertaking the training yourself: you get to witness how your dog learns and get a clearer insight into what makes her tick.

As for our Jessie’s progress, she is a puppy, she is full of energy and is still in the early stages of learning, so there are good days and there are bad days. Looking at the general trajectory though, her good days are on the rise. I continue to follow my basic strategy, keeping notes on our daily sessions and making small adjustments where necessary. I have realised it makes more sense to lean into her personality, rather than try to rein her in entirely. And this works well with my ultimate goal: for Jessie to see hunting as her main source of fun. To get the balance right can be somewhat tricky, as this fun needs to be the controlled kind, not the crazed, bounding-off over-the-hills sort of fun. The first step though is easy, it is simply to be clear about what you are aiming for. Any lack of clarity about your goal will confuse your dog.

As Jessie and I are spending more time together, we are becoming more in tune. Training has become more enjoyable, There are fewer moments of frustration and I start to see how now she wants to please me, how she waits for me to come out of the forest like she is checking I am ok. There is a sense of the dog that she is growing into and a sense that pretty soon everything will fall into place.

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Training a good truffle dog is an on-going process, it does not just stop when the dog is able to locate truffles, you should always be looking for ways to sharpen your dog’s performance.

One of the best ways to take your dog’s detection skills to the next level is to use the off-season to your advantage.

Some of the team have not been working for a few months and they might be starting to get a little rusty. We would like our truffle dogs to be at peak performance when the new truffle season comes around. So we start training well in advance.

About a month or so before the season starts, before there are truffles worth harvesting, we start taking our dogs out into the field. Although we are not actually out collecting truffles, these trips are vital.

Firstly, we need to go to all of our hunting grounds to monitor the truffle situation. Which patches are showing signs of life?We want to get a general idea about the quantity and quality of this year’s black truffles.

However the main purpose is dog training. Before the season begins, the truffles are present but they are still immature. Their aroma is much fainter which makes them far more difficult for the dogs to locate. It is like when we are training in the house and we hide the truffles in ever more difficult places. Nature is now helping us to replicate these practices in the wild. To find these unripe specimens requires serious focus from the dogs and top sniffing skills.

There is one more reason why we do this and many of you will be able to empathise with this. What usually happens at the beginning of the season? The truffles have started and you run off with dog and bag to get to work. Inexperienced dogs will take this opportunity to explore the forest, they want to follow the various scents, check out who lives there, urinate on all the trees and this can be very frustrating. Remember it might be months since your dog was last there so they want to familiarize themselves with every inch.

This is normal behaviour especially with younger truffle dogs, but it makes it hard for you to get to work. Bear in mind that you are working with a dog, an animal that has vastly different behaviour to us. If you want to work well with your partner, you have to prepare for these instinctive behaviours and with time, ensure they are not problematic for you.

You are the brains of the operation and the dog is the nose. Use your brain to think your way out of these problems. Take your dog to the truffle patches in this more relaxed time before there is work to be done, let him get used to the area and do as much exploring as he wants.

When the time comes to get out and start collecting truffles, your dog will have acclimatized to the places where you will be working together, he won’t feel the need to go dashing off so much. You will be less frustrated and the dog will sense that. In short, you will be a stronger team.

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The post Truffle Training Issues – Back to Basics appeared first on The Real Truffle Hunters Ltd .

Previous truffle training videos on our channel set out the steps you can follow to teach your dog how to sniff out truffles. To make these steps as clear as possible,, I used a dog, Allan, who had already been taught what to do. As these episodes were simply meant to be a demonstration, I skipped the stage where Allan himself was learning how to find truffles.

These videos seemed to attract a lot of comments along the lines of…’Our dog isn’t doing that’ and ‘I wish my puppy was as well-behaved as Allan’ or ‘ My dog Buster just attacks the truffle/ runs off’ This made me realise that it’s not always that helpful to hold up a pre-trained dog as an example. It can lead to those watching measuring their dog’s performance unfavourably, when it is just that their dog is simply at another stage than the dog in the video. So it’s time to dial it back a bit and look at a rather different picture- the steps to training the dog from scratch. Training an absolute novice can get quite chaotic especially if the trainee is a young puppy. However with repetition and a clear game plan, it will all come together in the end.

The Three Areas of Truffle Training

For simplicity, you can think divide training into three areas – a good truffle dog needs to master

General obedience training

Situational training

Truffle specific training.

General obedience is the behaviour all dogs need to know and is the foundation for a safe, happy dog. In this area of training dogs learn behaviours such as recall, sitting and letting go of objects.

Situational training is all about familiarization. Truffle dogs have a lifestyle vastly different to that of a family pet or a guard dog. Many excellent truffle dogs cannot work because they become travel sick, they get spooked by loud noises in the forest or they become aggressive with other dogs. In most cases, these animals have not been acclimatized to the various situations that a truffle dog will find itself in. The younger this situational training starts, the better.

The final area is their specialized training. Dogs are taught to sniff out truffles, indicate or dig for truffles – all of the skills a truffle dog needs to master.

Using the 3 Areas to Problem Solve

Keep these three training areas in mind when your dog has a challenge. As the dog’s coach you cannot be vague and complain that your dog just doesn’t get it. Referring back to these three aspects of the training will help you pinpoint what the problem is and which area it belongs to.

At the moment I am training a six-month old lagotto, Jessie. She finds truffles in the house and we have started going outdoors. Here I have been burying truffles for her to find. On the one hand, she is doing really well – she has learnt what to do and finds all the truffles straight away. On the other hand, when she does find them she eats them or attacks them. Now obviously something is not going right as this is a most undesirable behaviour for a truffle dog.

So firstly, I need to step back and analyse which area of the training you need to work on. In Jess’ case her actual truffle training is fine, she is detecting straight away. Her problem is that she won’t hand the truffle over and this falls squarely into the category of obedience training. The dog needs to learn to hand over objects she would like to eat or play with.

Now as this is an obedience training issue, we will need to go back to the drawing room, or in our case, anywhere indoors. Outside, there are too many distractions, too many unpredictables. So better to start in the familiar, more controlled environment of Jessie’s house.

Equipment

My goal here is to teach my dog that dropping an object, in this case a sock, is preferable to clinging onto it for dear life. I do not start off by using actual truffles, I have to work up to that stage. Instead I begin with I something like a sock, It is long enough for me to get a good grip on and that is all you need to do this training exercise. However as with all my trainee truffle dog’s toys, I won’t miss the chance to introduce the element of truffle to scent to the toy. So this is a sock with a truffle tied and secured inside it. For this lesson, you can use any long-ish toy that your dog likes to hold onto – a rope for example.

Teaching the Dog to Drop

When the dog has the toy in its mouth I am going to grab it and try to take it from her and as you see, she won’t let go. She wants to play a game of tug-of-war. To get her to drop the sock, I have to first show total disinterest, complete indifference. I want Jessie to understand that this game is not one we will play. So, with snacks at the ready, I hold the sock steadily and firmly but don’t tug. Keep this up, the dog will try and engage you in the game. Maintain your grip until you feel the dog loosen her hold. Seize your moment and quickly snatch it from her and immediately give her a treat. Do it again. You will see that there will be a decrease in the amount of time she spends gripping the sock. Your aim is that when you simply show her the snack, she will drop the toy.

The Key to Transferring Skills

Once Jess has got the general idea that I want her to drop the sock, I am going to introduce the command word. I am going to give the command ‘Drop!’ and the moment she releases I will give her the reward, some high value snack. You have around one second to make the exchange.

Having a command word means you can transfer this behaviour to other socks, to other footwear, to other things she wants to grab and hold onto. And I want her to have the same response wherever we are, in the living room, in the kitchen, in the garden and out in the woods. So as you see I tested it out. This is mastery. She quickly got the hang of this new way to earn herself a treat.

But will she do the same thing with the truffle? or will she attack it and eat it? I will do a few trial runs in the house and see what happens…

The Real World Test

Back out in the woods I have buried some truffles and I am going to see if I can get Jessie to give them to me. First of all I start off by tossing that truffle infused sock and asking her to drop that. Once I see that she is still responding to our drop command in our new outdoor setting, I can move onto the actual truffles. Again I do this incrementally, working our way up to the buried truffles. When I put a truffle nearby, she instinctively picks it up, but when I ask her to drop it, she follows the command. I throw the truffles and she returns them to me in her mouth, on hearing the command, she lays them on the ground every time. When I take her to the spot I have buried the truffles she digs them up and seems to forget what she has learnt, I hear a bit of a crunch but once Jessie catches a whiff of the sausage, she surrenders the truffle,

Thoughts

I was pretty pleased with how Jessie performed today. The truffles did get rather mauled and bitten but we can work on that. I am calling today a success but there is still work to be done. Perfect results will rarely be achieved overnight, but this is definitely one of those days where Jessie and I made a step forward. Now your own dog might be experiencing different difficulties to Jessie but the solution starts off in the same way – with you taking a step back to work out what is going wrong. Then you establish what kind of issue this is – do you think it related to obedience or to actually hunting for the truffle? Or perhaps the dog needs more acclimatisation to the surroundings or the various situations she finds herself in while in truffle hunting mode. Once you have worked out the manner of your problem, you can start to find specific solutions instead of simply feeling overwhelmed and disgruntled.

The Real Reward

I rewarding Jessie with snacks for handing over the toy or the truffle. Other trainers will use a different reward system but I tend to use sausages, I find the exchange with food to be the most convenient and pay the dog one piece of sausage for performing the correct task However for many dogs, snacks are only important in these initial stages. Further on down the line, out in the forest is where the real fun starts and my ultimate goal is that the dog works for the sheer pleasure of finding truffles. It’s not about a process of phasing out snacks. Rather I am set on making the whole truffle experience incredibly pleasurable for the dog. So much so that she will hunt regardless of whether there are any sausages involved. This is the best exchange of all .This is why it is so important to make truffle hunting the most fun your dog has. The fun-oriented dog is ultimately the best truffle dog, the dog who lives to hunt because he simply has a great time. We can learn a lot from our dogs about how to live a less complicated and fulfilling life. You want truffle hunting to be a fun activity for her – a game.

Old School

I know that many of the old school hunters discourage their truffle dogs from any kind of play and it can certainly be risky getting too frisky with a dog like Jessie who is already exuberant. However I prefer to lean into Jessie’s playful nature rather than try to curb it. Playfulness a great trait for a truffle dog and I want to work within the parameters of my dog’s personality. You will see hunters who work to break a dog’s will, trying to mould it into a truffle hunting machine. To any rational mind this is not only cruel but ultimately ineffective, time and again you see that these broken dogs never hunt as well as the dogs who hunt for the joy of it.

Training Not to Touch

I am well on my way to solving the problem Jessie and I were having At the same time, you might be questioning my logic. Surely it would be easier to train Jessie not to bite the truffles at all?. That may have been the simplest route . However, if we play our cards right, Jessie’s seemingly destructive habit of grabbing can be fine-tuned into one of the most useful of truffle dog skills. And I have big plans for this dog. I think at 6 months she is really coming into her own, she’s really responding well to training and more importantly she loves it. I too really enjoy spending this time with her and helping her to progress so it all looks promising.

The Final Stage

For the next part of the training I am going to step things up, I will be bringing in the big guns using two new trainers, these are teachers who can wipe the floor with me and in a couple of days help Jessie to progress more than I have been able to achieve in months.

The post Truffle Dogs: Solving Problems by Identifying the Training Areas appeared first on The Real Truffle Hunters Ltd .

There are several videos on this channel on the topic of truffle dog training. In these, a pre-trained dog  demonstrates the steps to teach your dog how to sniff out truffles. However in this short episode, Jess the lagotto has no prior training. Rather than simply going through the various stages, this video looks at the entire, messy process of training a dog from scratch.

The post Lagotto Truffle Training – How It Really Works! appeared first on The Real Truffle Hunters Ltd .

There has been a lot of interest in truffling over the last decade with many hobbyists taking up the activity in the hope of uncovering a valuable truffle. Some of this increased interest has lead to raking.  It is understandable that people do not want to risk money buying a trained truffle dog when a rake is a lot cheaper and more immediately available. However it really is a terrible idea to use a rake and search indiscriminately in areas where truffles are rumoured to grow.

These truffle spots are few and far between. If you are lucky enough to have found a truffle patch you need take care of it. As a hunter this is easy to do –  there are three ways to avoid damaging the growth site.

These truffle spots are few and far between. If you are lucky enough to have found a truffle patch you need take care of it. As a hunter this is easy to do –  there are three ways to avoid damaging the growth site.

• Unearth truffles carefully, disturbing the soil around them as little as possible.

• After unearthing a truffle, fill in the hole and leave the site as you found it.

• Rotten truffles should be left in the ground for future generations.

If you treat the growth site with respect, it can provide you and your family with the fruit of its roots for decades. Raking, however, damages truffle patches beyond repair. It may be an easy way to unearth this season’s fruit but it will be at the expense of next season’s truffles. This is why it is essential that hunters only use a dog to find truffles. Dogs are able to

• find the exact location of the truffle which avoids unnecessary soil disturbance
• only sniff out mature specimens which have culinary value.

What breed of dog should I train to hunt for truffles?

First of all it is a myth that the only good truffle dogs are lagotto romagnolo. Any breed of dog can become a successful truffle dog as all breeds of dog have a good nose. What you need is a smart, trainable dog. If you already have a young dog of your own then you are ready to start. If you have an older dog (18 months+) you might still be ok. This will depend on how bright the dog is and whether he or she has already undergone some form of training. For example does your dog  come when called or know how to fetch a ball? This will put him or her in a higher class than the dog who doesn’t respond to you and sits on the sofa all day.

If you don’t have a dog and of course, can look after one, you could try your local rescue shelter. There is no need to go out and buy a particular breed. A smart mongrel can run rings around a pedigree dog. Working dogs or hunting dogs do well in training, labradors being particularly easy but again it is more a question of character. Very timid dogs often don’t do as well and excessively boisterous dogs can be difficult to train. When choosing a dog, the criteria should be

• sociable and enjoy your company
• confident
• curious

Some dogs are better learners than others, some will take to truffle hunting more quickly than others. Your dog won’t learn overnight but with patience you can train even the slow learners.

As for equipment, you will need some truffle oil (any kind will do), cotton wool, aluminium foil and some snacks. The snacks should be something that your dog really enjoys and keep them exclusively for your training sessions.

The training sessions are split into three stages

• indoor (beginners)
• outdoor (intermediate)
• in the field (advanced)

Make sure your dog has fully mastered each stage before you progress to the next one. You will be using positive reenforcement, no scolding just plenty of warm encouragement, praise and the all-important treats. The sessions should be fun for both you and your dog so choose a time when you are both relaxed and in a playful mood.

Stage One – Indoor training – I have divided the stages into sessions, some dogs might get it after one day, others will need more time.

Day One – The dog learns to make a connection between sniffing the truffle scent and getting a delicious snack

Find a nice, quiet, clear space in your home without too many distractions. 

Prepare the ‘truffle’ by dabbing some truffle oil onto a cotton wool ball and wrapping it up in aluminium foil. Get your snacks ready, little bits of sausage or small pieces of chicken – nothing too large.

Introduce your dog to the space and let him or her sniff around and explore the area. It is best to do this before the dog has been fed and so is a little hungry. Pet the dog and talk in a calm way, avoid over-excitement as you want to promote an atmosphere where the animal can focus on the task in hand.

Place the ‘truffle’ on the ground and when the dog approaches to sniff it congratulate the dog with a ‘Good Boy!’ and reward it immediately with a snack and lots of encouragement. You can do this kneeling on the ground and keeping the truffle close by you – in front of you, to your side or behind you. Repeat at least six times, more if the dog is not getting bored.

Day 2 – The dog learns to make a connection between walking up to a truffle, sniffing it and being rewarded with a snack

If the dog has understood that you want it to sniff the truffle, you can start putting the truffle in different, but obvious, locations. You can introduce the search command – something easy like ‘Where is it?’ or ‘Find it’. Follow the dog as it goes towards the truffle and when it sniffs at it, you need to be quick and generous with your praise, snacks and affection. Repeat this for as long as it is fun for both of you. Most dogs love learning new tricks but be patient if your dog  takes a while to catch on!

Day 3 – The dog learns to make a connection between finding a hidden truffle and getting a snack.

Once your friend has understood that walking up to and sniffing a truffle will earn him or her a tasty treat, you can advance to the next stage. This third session will last a little longer as you should start very easy and gradually make the game more challenging. First off, hide your truffle somewhere obvious, make sure your dog has not seen the hiding place. Do not give any indications eg. ‘You are getting warmer!’ ‘Nearly there’. It is vital that you stay neutral and let the dog work out the location of the truffle with no interference. You are teaching your dog skills that must be transferrable. The dog will learn to apply these skills out in the field so try not to influence the dog while he is ‘hunting’ and you know where the truffle is. Congratulations, you are well on your way to becoming a truffle hunting team.

Keep up the great work trufflers – the next post will deal with Stage Two and you will be moving outdoors!

The post Train Your Dog to Hunt Truffles (Part One) appeared first on The Real Truffle Hunters Ltd .

Often when I tell people that we hunt for truffles, their first question is about how we train the pigs. It seems that the use of pigs in truffle hunting is very firmly ensconced in the collective consciousness. In reality though, the vast majority of tartufai nowadays prefer to hunt with dogs. Truffling pigs were common up until the 1970’s. Their first documented use was in the 15th century and as seen in the video below, some French truffle hunters continue to work with a sow.

I remember that over the years a gentleman of my countries, knowing that I knew Italy, asked me if I had seen the gentlemen go and graze pigs down there, and I laughed understanding that they were instead looking for truffles. – Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

What makes pigs such skilled truffle hunters?

Three things

• Their finely tuned sense of smell. It has been shown that your average female pig can sniff out a truffle buried 3 m. (9ft) deep. A trained dog is only able a detect truffles up to 1 m. (3ft) under the ground.
• Truffles emit aromas which sows find very sexy. Truffles contain quantities of a natural substance (5a-androst-16-en-3a-ol) produced in the testes of boars. This is similar to testosterone and sows find this musky aroma extremely attractive and search for the source. This is why truffle pigs are invariably female.
• Their natural proclivity towards rooting in dirt. It is an innate behaviour of pigs to rut around in the earth looking for something to eat. Just the skill required for a top truffle hunter.

Pigs are nature’s truffle hunter. Attracted to the scent of the truffle they find it, eat it and then the truffle spores are spread around through the pig’s faeces after digestion If they are so skilled then why do we use dogs?

Firstly, dogs also make excellent truffle hunters as they have such a highly developed sense of smell. Not as good as pigs, but still pretty impressive – at least 10,000 times as acute as a human’s according to James Walker at Florida State University. Comparing human and canine smell to their sense of sight gives a clearer understanding. Imagine you can see a building which is 1 km. away, well your dog could still see it from 10,000 km away. And see it clearly too.

If that was not impressive enough here are some more facts about the dog’s tremendous sense of smell.

• There can be up to 300 million olfactory (smell) receptors in a dog’s noses and only six million in humans.
• The proportion of a dog’s brain concerned with the analysis of smells is 40 times greater than that of a human.
• The way we breathe is different. When we breathe out through our nose, we force out any incoming odors. The exhalation of a dog takes place via slits in the sides of their noses. This helps new odors into the dog’s nose and allows dogs to sniff more or less continuously for up to 40 seconds – try it!
• Dogs have an olfactory organ we don’t have: the vomeronasal (or Jacobson’s)organ. Found at the bottom of a dog’s nasal passage, it detects pheromones, the chemicals which advertise when animals are in heat. This organ has its own set of nerves and so it does not get the pheronomes confused with the molecules of other odors.

So dogs are much better than humans at sniffing things out but this still does not explain why we prefer them over pigs.

Here are five reasons.

• Pigs are hard to train. It is much easier to train a dog to do what you want it to do. Pigs can be fairly willful and as they are often large and heavy they tend to get their own way.
• Pigs are difficult to transport. The older truffle pigs are usually more skillful but they are bigger and you need special transport for an animal which weighs 180 kilos.
• Pigs are too obvious. Truffle hunters need to be secretive. They don’t want any observers to know what they are up to as this could lead to the loss of a prized truffling territory. Anyone strolling around the forest with a pig on a lead is making his business known.
• Pigs tend to eat truffles. They love them and it can be exceedingly difficult to wrestle a truffle from the jaws of a hungry sow. Many valuable truffles not to mention fingers have been lost in the ensuing struggles.
• Pigs uproot everything on the forest floor thus damaging the truffle’s sensitive ecosystem. Imagine out at sea, a lone fisherman on a boat quietly casting his rod and further out a trawler violently dragging up everything the sea bed has to offer. This is the difference between truffle dog and truffle pig.

Which leads us to the final reason why hunters chose dogs over pigs every time. It’s not a matter of personal preference or which animal is the better hunter. Pigs are illegal. In accordance with Italian law, the use of truffle pigs has been prohibited since 1985. Pigs destroy the environment. And that settles the argument. Truffles are incredibly sensitive to environmental changes. And so as the more environmentally friendly, it seems that the dogs have it. Of the two, dogs are the better truffle hunters.

The post Pigs or Dogs- Which Animal is the Better Truffle Hunter? appeared first on The Real Truffle Hunters Ltd .

1. Good nose
2. Thick coat
3. Likes sauages …….etc

The quick answer to the question is that there are many breeds which make excellent truffle dogs. If this is not especially helpful that’s because we are asking the wrong question. Rephrasing the question to “What is the best breed of truffle dog for me?” makes it easier to start with some suggestions.

If you are considering getting a truffle dog you need to think about your own characteristics before you start thinking about those of the dog. That means that, in addition, to the usual practical considerations all potential dog owners must weigh up, potential hunters also need to take a cold, hard look at their own strengths and weaknesses..

How much experience do you have with dogs? What about your personality – are you laid-bac, energetic, fit? Can you only hunt at weekends? Are you ambitious -are you aiming to make a living out of hunting professionally? 

Most decent hunters would agree that the key factor is not the breed of dog but that man and dog make a good match.  A truffle hunter is entirely useless without his dog. The pair work as a team and if the two are well suited they can operate in seamless synchronizatio

Experience Level
 
This is perhaps the main factor to consider. If you are new to truffling it is often preferable to begin with low energy dogs who tend to stay close at hand and will follow you around sniffing out the general area around the path you tread together. This is why the lagotto is such a popular little dog. Unlike other more adventurous breeds, the lagotto is unlikely to run off chasing other wildlife – these instincts have been bred out over the centuries. As well as being easy to train and having an excellent nose, these dogs generally have an easy-going nature. These traits make the Lagotto Romagnolo the ideal truffle dog if you are just starting out or if you don’t have a great deal of experience with dogs.
 
Another favourite breed amongst novice hunters is the labrador. This is another sociable and affectionate dog that does not like to be alone. Labradors rarely leave your side as you explore the forest together at your own pace. Although they are naturally exuberant as pups, they mature relatively quickly compared to other breeds. Even if you do not have had much to do with dogs,  labradors are highly intelligent, fast learners and so are usually a breeze to train.

Stamina

How often will you hunt and for how long? Many hunters can’t wait for each of the truffle seasons to start and like to be out in the forest all day every day. Others might make less frequent and much shorter hunting trips  Generally speaking, if you want to hunt seriously then think about getting a larger, high-energy breed like the wire-haired pointer. Conversely, since these hunting dogs thrive on exercise and activity, avoid them  unless you intend to go out on a regular basis.
 
Whereas the larger hunting hounds seem to have boundless energy, smaller dogs such as lagottos and heavier set breeds like labradors may tire easily. The lagotto has small paws and although it may start digging with great gusto, after a while the dog starts to flag. As well as being unfair to exhaust your truffle dog, it is also an inefficient way to hunt. Tired dogs lack concentration and can’t detect truffles as well.

Lagottos, though, are the perfect dog for both the very inexperienced and the older, perhaps less fit, half of the hunting team. Although they are playful and energetic, they don’t mind staying home and pottering round the garden.
 
Other dogs would certainly not like it. Our pointers do not want to sit off at home and have a little rest, gnawing on a bone under a tree. They really want to be out hunting and will leap around all day for three months solid if you let them. They never seem to tire and are always raring to go first thing in the morning, sitting impatiently in the car before you have even got your boots on.

They protest loudly if they suspect they are not included in that morning’s team of dogs and their days off are spent at home in a sulk  When they are out on the hunt they are the happiest dogs you can imagine but they rarely trot along calmly beside you. All the pointers (wire-haired, short-haired and Bracco) are very fast. They cover vast tracts of terrain so hunters need to have plenty of stamina to hot foot it behind them as, nose in the breeze, the dogs race after the airborne scent of the truffle.

Fitness 

Most dogs are fit but not all hunters are in their best physical shape. If you are not up to running around for hours then it makes sense to steer clear of the previously mentioned athletic breeds . Smokers and slow walkers are not well matched with wire-haired pointers, griffons or any of the more boisterous doggos. 

However if you are  moderately fit and can cope well with a sustained brisk walking pace then a springer spaniel might be a good match. This breed is active without being hyper. Springers hunt by your side but will also run around covering a wider area. This keeps your truffling options open. 

Do you intend to train the dog yourself?

There are several benefits to training your truffle dog yourself. Cost is probably the most frequently cited advantage as you can definitely save yourself a few euros. A dog which has been trained to find white truffles but has little to no experience in the field will cost at least 2,000 euros.  An older truffling dog with a proven track record will set you back over 5,000.

Another reason to train your dog yourself is that you will enjoy it – it is tremendous fun. If you love dogs and have time and patience then it is not too difficult to teach a dog to hunt truffles. You will develop a closer bond with your dog have a better understanding of each other. The dog/hunter relationship is one of the most important factors in truffling. Doing your own training gives you the invaluable chance to learn all about your dog’s personality as it develops. You will have a greater insight into what your dog responds to, the challenges it enjoys, its needs and its limits. Through training, the dog learns about you. The two of you will form a team, spending long hours together, often alone, in quiet forests. All successful partners need to know how to communicate with one another.  A great truffle dog can communicate just with its eyes that it has found a truffle. Other dogs might bark to signal that they have found something and sit at the spot wagging their tail waiting for the hunter to arrive before they start to dig it up.

Another reason for DIY training is that you know what you are getting, In the past, we have bought dogs that were skittish or aggressive either with people or with the other dogs. We were never sure what training methods had been used and whether the dog’s character traits were inherent or a result of cruelty. If you buy a trained dog, don’t do it online if you can help it. Get to know the trainer well and make sure that only humane training methods have been used. There are some trainers who see dogs as a tool and not much more than a way to earn money. They try to train multiple dogs at once to maximize profit and so need to look for quick fixes.These may take the form of barbaric methods such as electrocution to keep dogs in line. 

If you decide to undertake the training yourself and it is your first dog, you could do a lot worse than chose a labrador. Lagottos are just slightly more difficult to train but truffle hunting seems to come more instinctively to them so they tie for first place with labradors. Springer spaniels are more demanding but they are manageable. The larger breeds of dog need careful handling. They can be wilful and stubborn and may prove too much for the first time trainer.

It goes without saying that training takes time. It will take between a year and 18 months to train a female dog. Most males take a whole year more until they are ready to start hunting seriously. Be prepared for a lot urinating on trees, going on long runs after rabbits and rolling around in various poos before you do any actual truffle hunting. I’m talking about the dogs here, not the hunters. Although if you want to engage in these activities, that’s your call.

Other breeds

  Our Best Girl

To end, I would like to speak out in support of the mutt, the mongrel, the mixed-breed. Even though the classic truffling breeds do tend to be more reliable as hunters, that doesn’t mean that other dogs are entirely unsuitable. In fact, some of the best truffling dogs are cross breeds. Most dogs have a fantastic sense of smell. If the dog is also smart, obedient and loves to play then it can be trained to hunt out truffles! Good luck to you all!

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