I think the best time to get a truffle dog is not when you plant the truffle trees but its when you first find truffles. It can take between 3-6 years before you will find your first truffles and it takes 1 year with a truffle season and a professional truffle dog as a teacher to have a good truffle dog.

If you get your truffle dog when you plant your trees your dog maybe 5 years old by the time you have truffles. They will be 10 when you start producing a commercial crop. At that age they will be close to retirement when you need them the most. If you have a professional truffle dog confirm you have truffles between year 3-6 then this is the best time to get the dog. You will have a area to train on with real truffles marked out by your professional harvester. You will be able to train for accuracy as you know the truffles exact location. When your crop quantity is really picking up you will have a dog in their prime.

A good idea is to get a second truffle dog 2/3 years after you first produce so you have two dogs at different ages. When your first dog is starting to slow down you have the second dog who is in their prime. You will have the second dog when your production started really picking up and you can rotate the dogs. In addition when you are training up your second dog you have a seasoned truffle dog who has done 2/3 seasons who they can learn from.