The most asked questions I get as a professional truffle hunter and trainer

When to get a truffle Dog?

The best time to get a truffle dog is the year you first find truffles on your farm. Spend the first few years after planting concentrating on nurturing your trees and soil to strengthen your mycorrhiza colonies so they will be strong enough to produce their fruiting bodies, truffles, as soon as possible. There are other extremely important benefits for getting your dog once you start producing which I outline in my blog.

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How can I find the best truffle dog?

This is a huge question with multiple different aspects to consider. As a summery any breed can be trained to be a truffle dog but not every dog can be a truffle dog. Its mostly about their personality not their breed. You need to find a dog with high drive and stamina, strong desire to please and strong reward drive and then build a strong relationship with that dog to become excellent truffle dog team.

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What kind of training courses are out there?

There are many free Youtube videos out there explaining how to train a truffle dog and varying techniques. Essentially you are pairing the reward with the scent of truffles or the desired odour.

The main benefit between finding a Youtube video and my course is that I work with students one on one providing private tuition either at your house or via video chat. I assess your dog to see what level they are at and recommend which course you would start at. I provide a week by week list of tasks to complete and require videos of the training to be sent through for me to review and provide feedback. I then customize the training manual throughout the 4 weeks depending on how your dog is progressing through the course work.

There are three levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advance and run for 4 week each. Once you are through Beginner and Intermediate your dog will be able to find truffles in easy conditions. If you want your dog to excel at finding truffles even in the hardest of conditions then the advanced course is also for you.

I am available to answer questions and help with any issues you have along the way. I continue to want to help after the course is complete and am always happy to hear how things are going and offer assistance even after the course is complete.

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When to start training a truffle dog?

You can start play scent games with your dog as soon as you get your puppy. Hide treats, say "Find" and they will start associating the word "find" with using their nose to search for rewards. Next comes adding the truffle odour association for the reward.

Can I get a pre trained truffle dog?

How important is basic obedience for a truffle dog?

Can my older dog learn truffle hunting?

How to build a strong leadership relationship?

What types of reward for a truffle dog and there positive and negatives?

Confidence and independence How to nurture there traits?

What to do with your truffle dog in the off season?

How did you get into truffle hunting?

This answer is quite a long story and can be read in the About section tab.

What are the different types of truffles?

How deep can truffles get?

When do truffle trees start producing truffles?

In the early days of truffle cultivation in Australia trees were taking 6+ years to start producing truffles. However these days with improve truffle inoculation techniques, soil conditioning/irrigation, better understanding of truffle spores/mating types and probably most importantly access to this knowledge via consulting firms like Truffle Growing.com trees are now producing as early as 3 years.

Where can I get the tools needed to start truffle hunting?

I can provide a truffle hunter starter pack for $65 (includes postage within Australia) which has all the tools you need to start training your dog. Doesn't include instructions on how to train dog. Please look at my truffle dog courses if interested in the course.

Email me if interested to buy truffle hunter starter pack or part thereof.

Includes: Bum bag for quick access to treats/toys, plastic container, tins (2) and tubes (3) for truffle oil hides, plastic jars with lids (2) for real truffle hides, tweezers, cotton swabs, 15mL vial of Educatruffe. Bum bag may differ slightly due to availability.

Real truffles are best, however, if you don't have assess to real truffle then Educatruffe, a specifically made truffle oil for training dogs, can work excellently. Every dog I have trained with this brand that I import from France has transitioned to real truffles instantly.

A full Educatruffe bottle 115mL: $45 + postage. I usually do a order of 3 or more bottles to reduced import shipping costs. It lasts for many years and you only use one drop at a time. Educatruffee is a dog training oil, it is not edible.

This is where I buy it from: https://www.truffefrance.com/accessoires-pour-chiens-truffiers/364-educatruffe-truffe-noire-dressage-de-chien-truffier-115ml.html

3D printed truffle (shown above) is not included in the truffle hunter starter pack. You can hide the truffle or scent of truffle and dig it into the ground to re-enact a truffle hunt $26 + postage.