TRUFFLE HUNTING

We are based in Melbourne and visit multiple farms servicing all around Victoria, Australia.

The rate for a truffle hunting team is $100/hour (+travel).

When you have a visit from Kovu and Zara you get weeks worth of hunting for just one visit as they will detect truffle which is ripe now and also truffle which is semi ripe. You will be able to harvest the ripe truffle and I will mark the locations of the semi ripe truffle to be revisited in a few weeks time. We find fortnightly or 3 week intervals are best to ensure the truffles are harvested at peak ripeness.

To get the most out of a truffle dog team is for the owner to accompany us and while I am marking the areas Kovu detects truffle you can be harvesting them if they are deemed to be ready.

BUT I ALREADY HAVE A TRUFFLE DOG:

If you already have a truffle dog I would still recommend having a different set of nostrils come through. Different dogs work the fields different ways, different dogs are better in different weather conditions, detect truffles to different depths and varying strengths of odors. We always find extra truffles when going through a farm which has a truffle dog.

TRUFFLE HUNTING EVENT/TOURS

If you have a truffle farm and are doing truffle hunting tours and need a dog to help with your hunting tours, Kovu/Zara is up for the challenge.

Kovu was a Therapy Dog via Alpha Canine Professionals and Delta Therapy dogs before he became a truffle dog. He visited aged care, hospitals, universities and multiple businesses on a weekly basis and thus is used to large crowds of people watching him. In fact he loves the audience. He is very focused on truffle hunting and can ignore any distractions (ducks, cows, kangaroos, other dogs etc etc).

Kovu/Zara has been running truffle events at RedHill Truffles since 2023. They love the meet and greet before the hunt, then get busy with work where they ignore everything except me then lastly the post hunt pats are their favourite as everyone is so happy to pat and praise them.

Please email me for rates and availability for truffle hunting tours.

TRUFFLE DOG TRAINING:

I am happy to assist any truffle growers who need some help, guidance or tips in training their own truffle dogs. I am able to visit you to demonstrate our truffle training techniques. I will work with you and your dog to formulate a plan to increase your dogs confidence, drive and accuracy in finding truffles. Please have a look through the past students page to see some examples of my work.

I have a beginners, intermediate and advanced course which each run over 4 weeks.

I provide a minimum 2.5 hours private 1 on 1 training which includes theory and practical aspects, course work, video reviewing and detailed comments of your video footage over the duration of the 4 week course. I also show and demonstrate these training techniques with my dog Kovu and show you in action how each step is done. I am available to help iron out any issues or help you work out if your dog it ready for more difficult hides throughout the course.

I can provide truffle dog training oil (Educatruffe) which I used to train Kovu and many other dogs and truffle training kit ($35) which includes all the items you need to get started. Every dog trained on this training oil has transition to real truffle instantly hence this is the only training oil I use. Although if real truffle is available we can use this instead.

All through the training I will be connectable via email/phone if you run into any issues along the way.

Please contact me for the rates for the truffle dog training program with as much information about your needs and your dog.