Reply To: Rachel & Vidoc FE520

[Alana McGee]

Motion is another way to increase the energy level for both of you. If you find that certain environments or scenarios are more difficult to maintain excitement about the work, simply adding some motion can make a world of difference. That motion can come from you or even the truffle target 🙂

It’s also OK for one of you to not be “feeling it”. Truffle hunting is an activity of partnership and if one of you isn’t feeling up to it, it is often best not to force it. This is actually a very nice lesson for all of us FROM Vidoc! Given your description of how you were feeling, responses from Vidoc and Esprit may have been very very different. Vidoc reads you like a book and reflects your energy right back. That is a wonderful source of feedback for you! If he seems low key, check in on yourself 🙂 Esprit, on the other hand, might just keep on hunting without you and respond to the disconnect by “pinging” around. All speculation, but things for you to observe in these situations. It’s all information that helps us become reliable truffle dog teams. Each team is different so these are very valuable learning moments when the same handler can observe two different dogs 🙂