Hi these targets had been in for about 2.5hrs .
I’d churned the area up with a trowel and put in a few false markers , you can see she is drawn towards all of the areas which have been disturbed, thankfully she only alerts on the right one!
At the end I show the dry soil, Molly has struggled with anything placed in this kind of soil. having said that at least she found this one! The targets placed in damper soil seem no problem.
I have been using small pieces frozen truffle for quite some time now.
Clustered targets seem to work OK. After locating the first one I make her search the immediate area , pulling her back in if she drifts off, when I’m happy she’s covered the entire area I’ll ease off her and let her expand the search as we move on. Still working within a couple of yards.
How long do you think I would need to be cooking scents before she is ready to start looking for the real thing?
How much more difficult is locating the real thing?
My understanding is that the truffle emits scent when its ripe. is that correct?
I’m asking this as I’ve been up to the orchard a few times recently and have had no indication of anything……..could be nothing there, could be she’s not quite ready. what do you think? I have always manufactured a find by throwing a tea ball into some long grasses. which now after working on buried scents she finds really to easy!