TRUFFLE HUNTING

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

Considering the amount of truffle a dog can find in a short time this amount is believed to be a fair amount for the years it takes to train a dog to this level.

In addition, when you have a visit from Kovu you get weeks worth of hunting for just one visit.

The reason for this, is that Kovu will detect truffle which is ripe now and also truffle which is semi ripe. So when Kovu visits your farm you will be able to harvest the ripe truffle which is ready today and the places he indicates which we can’t smell any odor when you revisit in a few weeks time will most likely be ready. An example of this was at Zoe and John’s Farm where he found 2 kilograms of ripe truffle on the day and the other places Kovu indicated which we couldn’t smell anything had ripe truffle just 7 days later where they dug up another kilogram that next weekend.

See the blog here

From experience, Kovu is able to work for 1 hour straight, which is phenomenal for a dog. After this time he will be given a 10 minute break before starting another hour. He doesn’t think he needs a break and will keep working but I have to monitor his work as he will keep working and tire himself out if I don’t give him a forced break. Depending on how many truffles are present he can check around 250 trees per hour. If there aren’t many truffles he can check them faster. As an example, for a farm which had many truffles he checked 150 trees in 1 hour and found literally bucket loads of truffle. For a farm which has less truffle he can check about 450 trees / hour. This time difference is due to the time he takes to pin point the exact location of the truffle. This is more difficult for dogs when there are many truffles in close vicinity, where dogs have to deal with converging odors, one of the most difficult tasks for a truffle dog.

The best way to get the most out of a truffle dog team is for the staff 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.

The 2018 Truffle Season was Kovu’s first season finding truffles and at his first hunt he found in total about 3 kg worth of truffle the largest 715 grams (we named her “Big Bertha”).

Below is a picture of the truffles Kovu found on his first day and ‘Big Bertha’ before and after cleaning and drying .

Since his first day, we have visited 6 farms in the 2018 season and Kovu found in excess of 11 kg of truffle which is phenomenal for his first season.

I am happy to offer our services to any farms within Victoria who would like us to help find their truffles.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested to know our introductory rates and availability.

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.

TRUFFLE HUNTING TOURS

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

Kovu is a certified Therapy Dog via Alpha Canine Professionals and Delta Therapy dogs, which includes professional indemnity insurance. He visited aged care, hospitals, universities and multiple businesses on a weekly basis and thus is used to large crowds of people (have a look at his Facebook page for his recent therapy adventures at our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KovuTheTruffleDog/

He is very focused on truffle hunting and to be honest, when truffle hunting in concerned, he might say a very quick hello to the customers but then he will pretty much get to work and ignore any distractions (people, ducks, kangaroos, other dogs etc etc).

In Kovu’s first year of truffle hunting he lead a private truffle hunting tour at a farm at Truffle Treasures near Daylesford.

In 2023, Kovu was running hunts (sometimes more then one per day) at Red Hill Truffle for their Hunting and Dining Experiences. Over the 3 month 2023 truffle season, he ran 18 truffle hunt and dine experiences with between 10 -20 people on each hunt. He absolutely loved the meet and greet before the hunt, then gets busy with his work where he pretty much ignores everyone except me then lastly the post hunt pats are his favourite as everyone is so happy to pat and praise him.

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 with or without Kovu 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.

Truffle dog training begins with finding what drives your puppy/dog. Is it food reward or is it a toy or ball reward?

Once you have found the high value reward specific to your dog its time to pair this reward with the scent of truffle.

To start with the length of time for training sessions should be short. I would recommend no more then 10 minutes to begin with. Search stamina is something which develops over time and its important to end the game when your dog still wants to play the game not when he is tired, over it and just wants to sleep. You will get frustrated, he will feel your frustrations and then your dog will make some negative association with this game which will end up setting back your training. It is very important to learn your dogs body language to know when they are starting to get tired or lose interest and not get annoyed but make the last hide super easy and fun and end on a good note with lots of praise and pats. Searching is mentally tiring for dogs, they have to use a large part of their brain to pick up the scent, track it, narrow it down to a position and then work out a way to tell you they found it. Just like anything over time all this will become more second nature to them and it wont be as mentally tiring and thus they will have a more search stamina. But just like learning to drive a car it doesn’t come naturally to start with it take a lot of concentration when you are learning.

The last stage in truffle dog training, going out into the field with your dog where you have no idea where the truffle is and relying on your dogs amazing sense of smell, his confidence that you helped build up, and your ability to read his body language to find all that black gold just waiting to be found and dug up.

When I provide training for truffle dogs I provide a template program for your dog which explains how to do the training steps, when to move onto the next stage or when go back a step if the dog has lost some confidence. However, this program will be tailored to your dog over time and I will make changes to the steps and the length of time in each stage depending on your dogs initial confidence level, age, and drive. Every dog is different and each dog will find some of the challenges more difficult then others.

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 truffle training kit ($35) which includes all the items you need to get started.

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.