Good morning , my name is Alessandro from south Italy. My loyal friend Elena is a 2 years old labrador. I'm fond of this breed because a friend of mine goes hunting with male labrador named Orlando. I'm writing in this forum to share with you my passio for this lovely breed. My black labrador Elena has been trained to find truffles. May I ask you where in the forum I can talk and post pic about this topic? In U.S.A. do you search for truffles ? If yes where exactly? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Hi @Alessandro welcome to the forum. I would perhaps write about the truffle training on the thread entitled Labrador training. Unless you elect to be forum supporter, you need a third party site to host the photos before you can post them on this site. In case you are not aware this site has members form all over the world. For example, I'm from Australia. I was thinking about teaching my dog to find truffles. But the A$2000 course fee was too much. There was no guarantee of work. I'd be interested in your truffle exploits. And I'm sure other members would be too.
Hi Alessandro, A very warm welcome to the forum! If you look in the Technical Section here you will find some more information on how to add your photos. Let us know if you have any trouble!
Thanks everyone for the welcome. Mr. Brooks I'm not a professional trainer, my labrador is the first dog that I can use for the research of the truffles. My dog was 4 months old when I buyed her from the breeder, after one month she found the truffles that I hide for the training. When she was 6 months old found the first wild truffle. She is no perfect but she found me the truffles,this is important. The labrador is a fantastic dog to train in every activity, but in Italy not many people use this breed for the truffles research because the italian "tartufari" prefer other kind of dogs like Springer Spaniel, Epagneul Breton, Kurzhaar and the tipically breed of Lagotto. But I think the labrador is too simply to training. Mr. Brooks I think you can train your labrador to research the truffles without a professional trainer, do you need only a young labrador and some truffles to use in the training.
@Alessandro Please call me Michael. I am aware of how to teach scent detection. I taught my dog to find Earl Grey tea. And i taught a friend, who also has a black Labrador to do scent detection. But I am interested in your training story. What indication did you teach your dog? Sit or paw the ground when she detects truffles? How did you initially teach an association with truffles? Dd you put the truffle in a box first? Did you bury truffle in the ground? Any account you care to share my ears are standing to attention. We can always learn from other owners' training stories.
@Michael A Brooks I try to show you how I trained my dog , please forgive me... my english is not so good! First do you need some truffles like "Tuberum Aestivum" and a towel or similar . Put the truffles and the towel in a little plastic container for 6/7 days. The towel takes the smell from truffles , and you use the towel with dog. First step tie a knot to the towel and use like a ball with dog :launch, retrieve and reward to the dog. I don't know how many days needs for this part of training, probably 8/10 days. When the dog knows well the truffles smell start to hide the towel under leaves and a little bit of topsoil and invite the dog to research the towel. Most Important Michael: when you touch the truffles, the towel and when you train the dog use latex gloves on your hands!!! If you don't use gloves the dog research your smell not the truffle's smell! When the labrador find well the towel start to hide the truffles in the towel and continue to the training. After this use the truffles in a plastic egg with holes and hide the egg under 15/20 cm in the ground. Let the dog research and dig in the ground if find truffles, give him a reward everytime finds truffles . In the last part of training use truffles without nothing. Probably the labrador will eat the truffles the first times , don't mind about it...it's important that the labrador knows the truffle's smell and research the tuberum . I hope you understand me...Australia is so far away from me I can't help you in person!
Hi @Alessandro Your explanation was very clear. And your English is very good. I would use the word detect or find instead of research but that is the only major error of word choice. I am familiar with the towel technique. Although I did not use it with my dog. How did you make sure that your body language (you knew where the truffle had been buried) wasn't giving away where the dog should look?. Did you do any repetitions when you did not know where the truffle had been buried? I was also surprised that you thought it was okay for the dog to eat the truffle.That would be something I thought you would try to prevent. Truffles are very expensive. Consequently one doesn't want the dog to be eating what she finds. In police dogs it would be a disaster for the dog to eat the evidence. In a previous reply you mentioned the breeds normally used in Italy. Those breeds tend to be smaller than Labradors. Is size a reason for the choice of breed for truffle detection? Or was it that Labradors were not a popular breed in Italy when truffle detection with dogs began in Italy. Or maybe Labradors would be expected to eat rather than just find the truffles? Sorry for so many questions. But I did tell you I was interested.
@Michael A Brooks I try to explain you. The most important thing use everytime the latex gloves when you handle the truffles. When I bury the hole and hide truffle the dog can't look me, after I walk around for 1/2 minutes to confuse the smell tracks. I wait 30/40 mt from the dog when she detected. I change place many times, not more of two times in the same place. The truffles that I use are old truffles not good to eat but good enough for the training, the italian "tartufari" usually give to eat old truffle mixed with the food of the dogs to help the instinct of the detected. Sure one of the reason of the choice of the breed is the size. The medium sizes are used for the white truffles the smallest for the other kind. The labrador in italy is not usually to truffles detected, only a little bit in north Italy not in south Italy. I hope you try again to train another labrador.
You're welcome @Michael A Brooks , I hope that you can you use my advice. Just one question in Australia have you wild truffles or only the "sowing truffles"?( sorry I don't know the english word) I know there's some Australian' farmer that produce the "tuberum melanosporum" . In the field with "sowing truffles" is too simply for the dog detected truffles...it's too difficulty find the wild truffles in the woods.
Hi @Alessandro I don't know the answer to your question. Here's a link to what I found. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-04-28/tas-farmer-unlocks-truffle-growing-secret/2418098 We seem to be using black truffles imported from France. And I found one farm in the northern part of the state of Tasmania that is using a Labrador to find the truffles.
Wow, I didn't expect to learn about training dogs for truffle hunting today! This was fascinating, thanks for sharing your story @Alessandro !
