Hello from Lois and Monza in Oak Ridge TN. In 2014, we worked through all the Truffle Dog Company classes. Originally I wanted to train Monza for truffle hunting for the tradition, but while taking the beginner class I realized hunting truffles at an orchard or in the wild could be a real possibility!
Welcome to my basement! You will be seeing a lot of it throughout the classes! As an assistant to Kristin and Alana, I will periodically post examples from our original class experience for reference.
Here is an example post from one of our 1st sessions.
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This is our 2nd session with fresh summer truffles. Monza is clicker trained and I will progress to boxes at our next session to make sure she’s recognizing scent and not just nose touching an object. She’s downing at the object which is interesting to me because she doesn’t down at her tracking articles! She stands and nose touches them.
My biggest problem when I 1st attempted to train her on truffles without an instructor was deciding on an indication behavior. I thought I wanted a sit, but then I realized I wouldn’t know where to dig! So we’ve settled for a nose touch since it’s what we settled with for tracking since she found a down aversive….except for today…when she offers downs. 🙂
Thanks Alana and Kristin!