Name: Tessa and Rita
Breed: Labradors (Black and Golden)
Age: 3 and 2 years (2023)
Reward: Food
Location: Truffle Valley, Seville.
Previous Training:
From 2020-2021 Tessa had been trained with frozen truffle hides/truffle training oil by her owner, Joan, and had been taking to the game like a fish to water. Knowing that their farm could produce truffles as early as 2021/2022 they wanted their dogs to be ready for the job therefore wanted to double check their current training and tips for improvement.
Main areas to work on:
To observe a Kovu, a professional truffle dog, in action and his training techniques.
Double checking current level of training/accuracy and tips for further advancement
Maintain focus, stamina, accuracy
Increase focus under distractions.
Prevent digging
Course: Advanced
In 2021, Truffle Valleyfound their first truffles with their dog Tessa.
In June 2022, we went to Truffle Valleyto do a truffle dog assessment to cross check the dog’s work and provide feedback and tips for further advancement. At this time only Tessa was working as Rita, their second dog, was still a puppy. Tessa did an excellent job finding truffle hides constantly and accurately. Joan, was given a small list of training exercises to further Tessa’s training.
In 2023, we had a visit early July where Kovu did a hunt through their truffiere. Due to last year being a right off due to the high rains, the owners weren’t expecting anything. Kovu loves to surprise us and found 2 big truffles with more locations of potential unripe truffle. We turned this hunt into a mini training exercise with her two dogs, Tessa/Rita. I found a few areas of improvement which Joan implemented and it made a huge difference to their searching. So, they opted to get us back to do the Advanced Course in late July 2023. The dogs then did exceptionally well under the guidance of Joan, finding challenging hides in difficult weather conditions.
Future:
Tessa and Rita will be working through the more challenging aspects of the advanced course during the off season between 2023/2024.
They are both excellent truffle dogs and I have no doubt that they will both be finding truffles at Truffle Valleyin the 2024 season.
2024 Update: Tessa and Rita started their commercial truffle hunting profession in 2024. All the extra hard work Joan put in to getting the dogs working under distraction allowed them to work in front of crowds of people while running truffle events.
See their adventures at their website: https://trufflevalley.com.au/