Id like to introduce Dougie a 3 year old kelpie and my latest truffle dog student whose training was during March-May this year. Over the next few weeks I will be revisiting Dougies journey. Starting at the beginning when I received the first video of an example of his searching.

A little about Dougies history:

Dougie had done K9 Nosework for 2 years and his owner had started him on searching for real truffle and truffle oil but was keen to know how to challenge him further and progress towards hunting in a truffiere.

Dougie’s owner felt that Dougie had the right personality for scent work due to how much he loved K9 nose-work and she sent through a two videos showing an example of his searches one adjacent to a building (which he was used to) and another open grass area (a situation he hasn't worked with much).

Once seeing this video I absolutely agreed with her that he had the drive and the desire for truffle hunting. Due to his previous experience and from watching this video they were able to start a customised combination of intermediate and advance course.

My summary of these videos which was sent to Dougie's owner:

"Video 1:

0-51second: not searching. ?Unsure what he should be doing. Maybe just distracted by videographer and other smells. Association between odour and reward low currently as he walked through the scent cone multiple times without catching the scent and paying it attention. Maybe also due to scent cone being narrow due to wind. Potentially started up wind of odour?

51 seconds. Gets the scent and instantly starts searching for a source.

58 second finds.

Instant look up at mum plus move away from source and jump. However, returns to source for reward due to correct rewarding at source.

- “Show” command

- Staying at source

- “Find” command

- Increasing distractions

- Increasing odour association.

- What food?

- Searching in variable conditions.

Video 2:

Really good understanding of the “Search” command. Instantly starts searching.

Excellent alert at source.

Staying at source excellent due to excellent rewarding at source.

After the reward from first hide keen to look at mum to get the search command again. High drive.

2^nd hide: Excellent problem-solving skills to work out the challenging scent puzzle. Didn’t look at the owner to help. Spent a good long time finding a source independently.

Tried a reshow. However, did not ask for and understood “Lets go” instantly and moved on.

Understood hand gesture perfectly. Excellent job not verbally saying search again and using hand signals to indicate direction to search.

Slight distraction. ?New location or just haven't done scent games for a while? 3^rd search may be mentally tired? However, gets back into it after a 15 second mental break.

- Increasing Search stamina.

Excellent lead handing. Loose lead, great job and also not letting it get tangled. Excellent automatic gathering up excess lead. Very responsive to “Yes” verbal reward. Seems very food driven which is great.

Might need to reduce the number of treats to just one. In a truffle farm you could find a lot of truffles. Could do one treat plus pats and excitement which will also give him a small mental break before starting the next search.

Up to 4^th hide. Excellent work with the “Finish” command.

You are definitely up to an advanced course level with a few items from the intermediate level.

Intermediate:

Teaching "Show"

Increasing focus with distraction.

Advanced: Full course. "

Grass is a huge distraction for dogs. To us humans its just grass but to a dog its like walking through the city with flashing lights, advertisements, messages and a whole host of other information waiting to be smelt and understood. Truffle training is the process of training their brain to be able to tune out these other stimuli by making the mostly uninteresting smell of a truffle into the most important odour there is.

In the next instalment I'll include a video from his next week in training.