I’m Simone and I have two adorable Belgian Shepherds named Kovu (10 years old) and Zara (8 years old). We visit truffle farms within Victoria, Australia and help find their truffles or aid with training their dogs to find truffles.

As a young puppy Kovu needed a job. His passion to work along side me doing anything and everything was obvious from the day I got him. We started learning a language together at Alpha Canine Dog Training and he thrived in his ability to communicate with me and me him.

From a young age I took him to innumerous places to get him accustomed to people of all walks of life. We sat outside primary schools at 3pm pick up or outside shopping centres for hours and he would get to meet and greet hundreds of people. This developed and fostered his love of people. At Alpha Play care he got to hone his dog socialization skills and became a model doggy citizen.

All this led us to do and pass the Alpha Canine Professional 6 Day Intensive Course: Animal Assisted Therapy for Human – Canine Teams and Delta Therapy dogs’ assessments. We began volunteering as a therapy dog team. We visited age care facilities weekly, psychiatric facilities, universities, numerous businesses hosting therapy dog social functions and even the Australian Open in January 2019.

While doing therapy work, we discovered K9 Nosework and soon it was clear that Kovu absolutely loved scent games. Click here to view one of our training exercises, little did we know that next year he would become a professional truffle dog. In 2017, I went to the Truffle Melbourne Festival and learnt about truffles. Keen to test our skills with a new odour, I order some truffle training oil from France. Due to his prior training with me, where I show him a new scent and he understands to find that particular scent, I showed him this new scent, hid it and off he went straight to it. I kept making the hides more challenging until I couldn’t make it any harder so I decided to try him on the field.

On 10^th June 2018 we did our first truffle hunt at Truffle Treasures, Daylesford Victoria, and he found 3kgs of truffles in his first visit. We even found the biggest truffle we have found so far at a whooping 715grams on his very first day. Click here to watch the video of us digging up this huge truffle!!

In his first year (2018) we found 14kg from 3 different farms (Daylesford, Mitta Mitta, and Rochford). See our first 3 testimonials at https://caninetruffleht.com.au/testimonials.

We finished up therapy work in June 2019 due to family commitments and because Kovu enjoyed scent work so much that I wanted to put any spare time we had into doing things that he loved most. Every year since we have been visiting more and more farms and finding more and more truffles. Zara began truffle hunting in 2021 and has taken to it like a fish to water.

Last year, in 2024, we found in total 55kg (worth in excess of $137,500 retail) of truffles visiting 15 different farms. Mostly Tuber melanosporum (black winter) but also Tuber borchii (white), Tuber aestivum (summer) and Tuber uncinatum (autumn). Hopefully one day we can add Tuber magnatum pico to that list which is still in the development stage of cultivation.

Partly due to Kovu’s work as a therapy dog and partly due to his genetic makeup and socialization as a puppy, he especially loves hosting truffle events. Groups of people, large groups or small, come along to see him work. They get to pose at the end of the hunt with a truffle dog which is something the clients absolute love and the dogs love it as well. Zara also runs truffle hunts and absolutely loves to get pats at the end of the hunt from everyone who is willing.

In 2021, my business grew to incorporate truffle dog training as there is a desperate need for more truffles dogs as more and more farms start producing. In the last 4 years, in the off season, we have helped 9 budding truffle dogs hone their skills and earn their stripes as a truffle hunting dogs. Since Kovu doesn’t mind an audience when he works, we often have the owners training truffle dog come along (on lead). For some dogs this would be a distraction but not for the single minded Kovu when he is in work mode.

See https://caninetruffleht.com.au/past-students to see our past student biography’s.

I absolutely love dog training which is how I ended up doing truffle hunting professionally, just playing and teaching my dogs new games. I love the look of pure happiness on their faces when they know we are going to a farm. I love assessing dogs and working out how to help their owners understand their body language and foster a stronger language and relationship. I especially love finding a farms first truffles and the look of amazement that all their hard work has paid off. So far that number is sitting at 12 farms.

I hope to continue to add to this number as more and more farms start coming into their 3^rd and 4^th years and one day hopefully find the Rolls Royce of truffles the Tuber magnatum pico.