Hello Everyone,
I’m glad to be joining this class with all of you! I live in Oregon, in the Willamette Valley. I got interested in truffle dog training because it is a perfect merging of my interests: dog training, edible fungi, and hiking/the outdoors. It’s a real bonus that I live in an area that has a high concentration of some edible truffle species!
Though I’ve been training and teaching various reward-based dog activities for years, nosework is relatively new to me. I have previously taken Kristin and Alana’s online classes with my 3 year old terrier mix.
This time around, I’ve chosen a more challenging subject… my 11 year old papillon, Dottie. She is very energetic and food motivated, and she still loves to learn new things. Don’t let her age fool you. 🙂 She doesn’t have the same drive as my other dog, however, and is more easily distracted by her environment. We have just finished the Level 1 class (Intro to Truffle Hunting) and are excited to move forward to this one.
During the break between classes, I have been working on a more refined alert—paw touches only, without mouthing the target. This has been going well. We have also been working on multiple hides around the house, and have been including some distraction scents as well. (Yes, we even practiced with deer poop!)
I am really looking forward to this class and learning from all of you classmates!
Here’s Dottie!
