“The important thing is to keep it fun,” advises Brosnan, who explained that the puppies think of this as a game and have no idea they are learning.
She offers introductory and advanced truffle searching classes and leads students with their dogs on truffle searches. Although the Lagotto Romagnolo is especially skilled at truffle hunting, many breeds of dogs are able to be trained to do the job well. However, notes Brosnan, some breeds have different challenges than others. “Terriers are easily distracted,” she affirms. “Hounds often have another agenda (like rabbits). Sighthounds do not ordinarily keep their nose on the ground. Short-snouted dogs have an obvious disadvantage, but still have a sense of smell much greater than ours. Essentially, all can be trained with patience and positive reinforcement.” While you may not be a Lagotto owner in the truffle-rich Pacific Northwest, truffle hunting can be learned by just about any dog. With a little training, your dog might be on their way to helping put a delicious dinner on the table on your next truffle hunting excursion.
Truffle Hunting Training Brosnan introduces truffle dogs to the scent using positive reinforcement clicker training. She pairs the scent with a click to mark the find, then rewards. Most dogs catch on to the game quite quickly. “The sequence is: sniff, click, treat,” explains Brosnan. “You can add a command like ‘truffle’ after they realize that the scent of truffle equals treat.” As the dogs progress in their training, they will develop an alert, such as barking, sitting down, or gently digging. This is done so the handler knows the dog has found truffles. As dogs gain experience, distractions are introduced to mimic what truffle hunting dogs experience when searching in the woods, like distracting scents, gunshots, and other animals.
Article taken from the AKC website at: https://www. akc.org/expert-advice/training/truffle-hunting-dogs- track-underground-treasure/
Truffle Hunting Breeds Your dog doesn’t need to have been introduced to the scent of truffles at birth to be a successful truffle hunter. Brosnan notes that in her experience teaching, the best truffle dogs are ones who are curious, independent, biddable, and food motivated. Those traits can be found in a variety of breeds or mixed breed dogs.
Lagotto Romagnolo (pronounced Low-got-tow Ro-man-yow-low) 25
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