Canine Truffle Hunting and Training

24/08/2024

24/08/2024

24/08/2024

Thats a wrap for 2024 season. Thanks to all my clients for all the fun hunting this season. Looking forward to seeing you all next year!!!

Last truffle hunt for 2024 season at RedHill South then Red Hill Truffles for last event hunt of the season. A beautiful 20 deg day.

20/08/2024

Truffle season is almost finished. Last few hunts still providing lovely truffles in Icy Creek and Tyers.
Some of which 30cm deep!!!

Photos with permission

15/08/2024

Thanks Kim for such a lovely review after doing the intermediate truffle dog training course. I have also just added Bert to the Previous Student Biographies Page.
Follow Bert's adventures on Instragram .truffles.

Truffle dog owners: Go check out the previous students. What they needed help with and what their up to now!!

https://caninetruffleht.com.au/past-students/bert

"I began training Bert in truffle scent work when he was a very young puppy. I was just following my nose, until we recently did a weekend intensive with Simone. Her impressive knowledge, and ability to communicate and to teach was inspirational. Simone taught us step by step through theory and practice. Watching her handle Bert and her own truffle dogs and then practising ourselves under her guidance gave us new skills and confidence to head into the truffle season. Since then, Simone is providing valuable support and feedback as we work with Bert in the truffiere. Her skill in truffle dog training and her knowledge of the truffle industry has really helped ignite my own interest. Thanks Simone, you're a legend!"

15/08/2024

Harvest to plate in 15min!! Thats got to be a record.

Truffle hunting in Bellbrae last weekend on 4 year old trees and finding just under half a kilo of borchii and their first black melanosporum truffle. Then enjoying it on scrambled eggs at the truffiere. How delightful!!

Showing hunting/harvesting, teaching the difference between ripe/unripe, washing techniques, shaving techniques and quantity on food.

Photos with permission.

10/08/2024

Truffle under a thick root. A truffle hunters nightmare!
Beautiful day running a event at RedHill Truffles and a hunt and harvest at RedHill South.

08/08/2024

Hunting Event and Apprentice Truffle Dogs Final Stages of training.

What a lovely sunny day at Truffle Treasures
showing a group of apprentice chefs how we find/check/harvest truffles which they love to use in their cooking.
Kovu and Truffle Treasures truffle dog Willow, loved working for the large audience and of course the pats and attention post hunt.

Then off to Double Oaks Estate to find their next batch of beautiful truffles for their cracker of a first season. Added 5 new producing trees to their ever growing list!!

Making sure we marked and left some so their apprentice truffle dogs can practice with known truffle locations.

When in the final stages of training a truffle dog its important to know the exact location of real truffles so you can reward for perfect accuracy to teach the dog “near enough isn’t good enough”

They have to think you know the exact location of every truffle and you are simply testing them.

P.S A good truffle dog (and human for that matter) often have some dirt on their nose 🙂

04/08/2024

Night Truffle Hunt and New Harvest Record of 9.5kg!!!

Do truffles glow in the moonlight?

I arrived at a farm in the evening for a hunt the next day as its a 4 hour drive to this farm.
I was curious to know whether we could truffle hunt at night. Would truffles be bioluminescent in the moonlight? Would they glow at night but no one ever hunted at night so no one knew??

The pictures and video speak for themselves, it’s absolutely possible to truffle hunt at night. 1.5 hours and 1.6kg of truffles.
P.S. Unfortunately they don’t glow at night. But I guess if they did it would put Kovu out of a job.

Update: We found another 8kg today (5/8/24) !! Grand total 9.5kg this hunt!!

29/07/2024

Truffle Dog Training Tip:

To find deep truffles train your truffle dog to be highly sensitive to low levels of odour molecules. Use wet paper towel around a hide to be able to change the quantity of odour molecules released.

Today we found first truffles at a 4 year farm in Thorpdale and an hour later the first significant harvest of 1kg on 5 year old trees
The tops of these truffles were 10/15cm deep with the bottom aspect 20cm deep.

Especially in wet conditions, it’s imperative to have your truffle dog trained to finding truffles with low levels of odour available.

What a great day!!

Photos with permission.

23/07/2024

Truffle Dog Training Tips

This is a beautiful video of a Kovu walking into the truffle scent cone and finding the truffle. Perfect accuracy and reshow.

W**d mat, grass and wind no match for the canine nose!!

Anyone who has done my training courses will instantly see the numerous COB (change in behaviours) that Kovu demonstrates. Ive counted at least 7 COB in 13 seconds. I wonder if there are more?

This video is worthy of its own blog post. Where I will name these COB’s and why they are so important to see and understand in truffle dog training.

Challenge to any of my previous students or anyone wanting to challenge themselves:

Try and see how many COB’s you can see then read the blog for the answers.

https://caninetruffleht.com.au/blog/1

Question: What is your truffle dogs most obvious COB’s?

22/07/2024

First Truffles at 3 year and 4 year old truffle farms!!

A big multiple farm truffle day today. Checking 3 year old and 4 year old trees at a few locations in eastern Victoria.

Kovu is Mr stamina never losing interest or focus.

Make sure to watch the video of Kovu hunting in the most recent post above.

19/07/2024

Breaking News!!
There has been a lot of work behind the scenes and with the help of my computer savvy sister, Meagan we have development a new website and logo.
Make sure to have a peek at https://caninetruffleht.com.au/

17/07/2024

A great truffle expedition. First to Wongarra near Apollo Bay finding lots of winter black truffles.

Sometimes Id like to dial down Kovu’s sensitivity. I mean seriously a truffle that small, the scales cant even detect it. This dog should of been a drug sniffer dog.

Then bit of native wildlife next to the truffiere, then truffle dog training for Luna. What a super star she is becoming!

Then to Casalingo Italian Restaurant Apollo Bay to deliver the harvest. Farm to restaurant with a few hours. Now that’s service plus a bonus meet and greet with the truffle dogs for the restaurants owners.

Next day off we went along the great ocean road to Bellbrea to find more white truffle on 4 year old trees. About half a kilo with many more marked to ripen a bit more.

A consult with the owners to teach them about ripe/unripe/digging techniques, truffle dog training tips and much more.

Then some drone video footage which I will post once its been edited by the videographer. So excited to see that. Never seen myself hunting from a birds eye view. What a privilege!

16/07/2024

Did someone leave a teddy bear in this tree?

I love the places I get to explore and the things I get to see while truffle hunting.

15/07/2024

What a lovely review from a truffle hunt and tasting event Red Hill Truffles. We had a fantastic time as well.

See their pictures on the link below:

“We had an amazing experience truffle hunting last Saturday. Our guides Simone and Tim were fantastic! Everybody had the opportunity to get their hands dirty digging for truffles, the trained dogs were amazing and very sweet. The setting was lovely, beautiful farm with wonderful views, afterwards we were treated to a nice lunch with soups and pizza, all using the truffles we collected. 10 out of 10 for this tour, highly recommended!”

Red Hill Truffles https://g.co/kgs/kpF3mCh

4.9 ★ · Tourist attraction

14/07/2024

Thanks for the lovely action shots Double Oaks Estate. Another fantastic harvest. Such an amazing first harvest on 5 Year old trees!!

11/07/2024

Bonnie is finding her first real truffles!!

Bonnie is one of my previous students where we did my intermediate course in Aug 2023 and did a refresher truffle dog training in mid June 2024.

I was so happy to get a update today from her owners that she found her first real truffles yesterday!!

See Bonnies profile at:

https://caninetruffleht.com.au/past-students

05/07/2024

Today was my husband, Orry’s first rodeo as a professional truffle hunter and he smashed it.

Orry always hears about my truffle hunting and has learnt alot along my journey of becoming a professional truffle hunter/harvester. So over the last fews weeks with two sessions, I brought him along and taught him the ins and outs of dog scent work behaviour and truffles.

Today he helped run a truffle experience Red Hill Truffles today and as owner Jenny says “Orry and Zara worked extremely well and was a extremely successful day”

Id better watch out sounds like I have some serious competition, ha ha

30/06/2024

Gotta love the iceberg effect. You think its small and then it gets bigger and bigger.
Another beautiful truffle in Elm Paddock Red Hill Truffles this paddocks first producing year. Also some white truffles under the pines.

Kovu searched 300 trees for two truffles. Never feeling down about the lack of numbers, due to his training where I hid one truffle in a paddock. Determination until the end of the hunt and beyond!

Another excellent hunt and dine experience for 23 people with Kovu and Zara.

Dont forget to book your hunt at:
https://redhilltruffles.com/hunts

29/06/2024

Rain, wind or shine the truffles don’t wait for anyone.
Progressively getting more and more unkempt in the rain/mud with two truffle hunt/dine tours totalling 28 people.
Kovu and Zara smashing it in hard weather conditions and everyone got a turn harvesting truffles.

24/06/2024

Fantastically successful two days of truffle hunting in Smoko. We harvest 1.7kg only from rows 1-2 and marked the rest of the truffles from rows 3-6.

23/06/2024

Perfect frosty morning with truffles waiting for us.

23/06/2024

A very productive day with new owners at a truffle farm in the alpine region.
Teaching the scent difference between ripe/semi ripe/unripe and documenting accordingly, harvesting techniques, storing and preserving.
Consulting on all things dog related: picking the right dog, personality traits, reward system, drive, stamina, distractions, on lead vs off lead … the list goes on.

A big day with beautiful truffles!!

Kovu and Zara had a absolute blast!!

16/06/2024

🌈 THE BLACK GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW!!! 🌈

I think we have peaked in success this season and its only 2 weeks in. Today a momentous occasion at Red Hill Truffles!!! We found 3 beautiful truffles in a paddock which had never produced truffles before. We have checked these trees for the last 2 years which Kovu indicating truffle activity but no actual truffle.

Today was the day the truffle was found and then like a miracle of nature a huge rainbow came out as I went up to the pavilion to show owners Jenny and Mike from Red Hill Truffles all their hard work has paid off. Can’t get much better than this and we had a celebratory glass of wine and Kovu his well deserved sausage roll.
Check out the video of me digging it up (link in comments)

15/06/2024

First truffles again!!
Today at Double Oaks Estate we found first canine found truffles. We cant say we found the very first truffle as the owners found their very first small truffle on the surface without the help of a canine 2 weeks ago!! But Kovu found 800g worth with many more to come over the next month.
Then off to another nearby hunt where expert truffle dogs Kovu/Zara found truffles ripe and soon to be ripe in Mount Prospect.
Check out the video of Kovu’s ball reward system. Most dogs are food rewarded but Kovu loves his ball more than food. We both have alot of fun playing games.

10/06/2024

WE FOUND FIRST TRUFFLES!!
Kovu found first truffles at a 4 year old farm in Bellbrae this morning. Do you think we are a little bit excited?
Now continuing the fun at Wongarra Truffle farm this afternoon.
Photos with permission

08/06/2024

Here is a sneak peek into the fun we had today at Red Hill Truffles. I love the exclamation of "WOW" that the clients often have as they unearth a beautiful truffle that they will get shave and enjoy on their lunch!!

08/06/2024

Another excellent Truffle Hunt and Truffle Tasting Event at Red Hill Truffles. Big group of 20 people and Zara absolutely smashed it. Totally focused on the job but also loving the after work pats and attention.
If you are keen to see the truffle dogs in action make sure to book in a hunt and dine experience. Weekend hunts book out fast and truffle season is only a limited season.
Book at https://redhilltruffles.com/hunts

23/08/2023

Since the truffle season is finished up for us Mum has more time to work on the website and keep it up to date.
She has added a Biographies page of my truffle dog apprentices.
She has done 3 of the 6 so far. If you are curious to see the different breeds of dogs who become truffle dogs and what things they needed to learn click the link and have a read.

Previous Student Biographies 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...