Reply To: Rachel & Esprit FE520

[Alana McGee]

Due to the time difference and today being the last day to submit videos I went ahead and took the dogs truffle hunting.

For Esprit I used the 10-day-old truffle that we practiced on in the last week.

The holes were about 2 ? 3? deep. They were cooking for about 20 ? 30 minutes; I took the dogs for a walk in between. Hardly any wind, earth on the wet side due to the heavy fog (each day till March to April now) and it was raining yesterday.

Esprit?s hides were marked. I couldn?t find the ribbons when I tried to remove them. He got some ?weird holes?; i.e. I hardly had to dig and there might be mouse holes. I gently pushed down a piece of truffle wrapped in paper towel and covered it with the ?overlapping? earth.

Esprit got 6 truffles but I was ready to pull him after 3 or 4 truffles so Byuti could work too. Esprit got stuck on one truffle. He clearly located it and was digging but then dismissed it. I tried to help too but the earth was very packed and had no tools with me (left in the car).

We had distractions in form of dogs with their owners twice during Esprit’s search. We saw them and I was very happy that he didn?t scan the environment, just noticed them and focused on his job.

I guess I will try to locate more environments like this one – forest edge – and hide 3 or more truffles. Any other suggestions?