Hi,
We’ve had plenty of mails and a phone call so you know a bit about me, but largely for the others. I am in the south of the UK in a county called Dorset. I got into truffle hunting back in 2008. Having been collecting fungi for a good few years, I was between jobs and had a dog and some time and wanted something to do. I got in touch with a lady that did truffle dog training and had a few hours with her and my Black Labrador. At the end of the training session we were invited to participate in the first UK truffle hunting championships. With a lot of practice we won! and went on to find “real”, wild truffles. Eventually I set up the English Truffle Company (www.englishtruffles.co.uk) and it’s part of my living now.
I’ve trained three of my own dogs to find truffles and a few for clients. This activity is going to become more important to my business so I’ve signed up to learn more about training and am really happy to be co-operating with Alana and Kristin for mutual benefit.
For this training, I am working with Lithia, a 4 year old Springer Spaniel. We’ve had her about a year and a half after she was rejected by her previous owner. She hadn’t really had any training before us so was a bit “feral”. We’ve been working on her general behaviour as well as truffle hunting. She found her first truffles last season but needs to be more focused and less distracted.