Name: Bonnie
Breed: Black Labrador
Age: 6 Years old (2023)
Reward: Food
Location: Near Ballan. Living on a 2.5-year-old truffle farm (2023)
Previous Training:
Bonnie started her truffle dog training in February of 2023 when she was 6 years old. Hides consisted of a treat and edible truffle oil (olive oil based) on cotton wool within a silver ball and netted bag. Bonnie would pick up/dig up the hide and throw it around a bit before bring it to her owner. Then sometimes jumping up to get a reward. She would find this paired hide very consistently within the shed and was keen to search once she got started. She would need to be reminded to keep searching often throughout searches and would be distracted easily.
Main areas to work on:
Working towards unpaired hide (truffle scent without reward)
Independent searching.
Increasing focus especially in areas of higher distraction (i.e. outside)
Reduce jumping
Reduce digging/picking up of hide.
Course: Intermediate
Once hearing about her history, I was happy for Bonnie to skip the beginner course and go straight to intermediate. We worked through the course focusing on unpaired (non-edible truffle training oil) with independent searching in increasingly distracting environments while keeping Bonnie at the source of the hide without digging/picking it up nor jumping up.
Outcome:
After 6 weeks she was searching independently on unpaired hides outside without the need to keep reminding her to ‘search’ and she was staying at the source to get her reward. Not picking it up and not jumping up demanding more treats. She would show the location with her nose and sometimes paw tap the ground before looking at owner for reward while still standing in front of the hide. She transitioned to real truffle hides instantly and was finding the real truffle hides outside under increasingly distracting environments. She would re show a location when asked and was accurate in her alerting at the source. Once a hide was found with simply stepping forward, she would continue to search for the next location without the need to re tell her to search, showing independent confident searching. She understands when the game is finished by a “All finished” command and taking off the lead. She better understands her role in the truffle hunting team and is a much happier dog because she understands how the game works and what she needs to do to get her treat.
Future:
Bonnie has completed Intermediate Truffle Dog Training in August 2023 and will continue to the Advanced Course during the off season between 2023-2024. I have no doubt she will be finding real truffles on their farm once it starts producing sometime between 2024-2026.
2024 Update: We did a 2-hour refresher course in mid-June 2024 to consolidate some training techniques and iron out a few distraction issues which had popped up during training. We discussed how to increase distractions slowly and lead handling techniques. Then on July 10th 2024 Bonnie found her first truffles and her owners were so excited to see all the progress she has made.