TRUFFLE HUNTING IN OREGON

Trifecta Training Center

   In the Pacific North West we have the perfect conditions for a rare delicacy. The mushroom called Truffle. We do have other mushrooms. Lots of them, but the truffle is one of the ones desired by the gourmet cook. This delicacy is yet another gift from Europe. The hunting of truffles here, is becoming more and more popular. In Europe they used to use pigs. And, the pig is a great hunter. It also likes to gobble the truffle before the handler can rescue the delicacy. Dogs make great truffle hunters as they can be trained to refrain from digging and eating the truffle. They can be trained to alert the handler they have found the truffle; and, not only found the truffle but the ripe and most desired truffle. Other methods of truffle hunting without the use of a dog or a pig result in digging up truffles that are not yet ripe and in effect losing many of the truffles from a particular area.
I am a dog trainer. I am fortunate to live in a park like setting amid acres and acres of Douglas Fir trees in the Cascade range. This is a prime area for truffle hunting. For more on Trifecta Training Center click here. I have previously trained several dogs to do scent discrimination so I was very familiar with the old fashioned techniques.  But the old method took a long long time, so I decided to experiment with a new way of training and it surpassed my expectations.

Training a dog to do anything that is not its normal tendency (i.e. retrievers retrieve naturally) is not easy. My new and innovative way of training a dog to scent truffles does require several stages but works fast and gets great results. The training proceeds from teaching the dog to work with you, to training the dog to enjoy searching, training endurance and training the dog for a specific scent. It is important the dog be secure at each level of training so when it ultimately has to go out in a truffle area it can ignore millions of other scents and keep working to find the one it is trained for. It takes energy, enthusiasm and endurance. Any dog can be trained to do this work. Many different breeds are doing well scenting truffles. It takes a good dog trainer to teach new enthusiasts how to read the dog and work with the dog to keep it enthusiastic on task and consistently identify the correct scent.

If you are interested in more information about dog training or truffle training call 541-935-5525 or email trifecta_training_ctr@yahoo.com.

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