Chris (access until November 15, 2014)

[Alana McGee]

Hi Chris

As for marking trees- above ground yes, is a good way to go about it! I tend to tie ribbon to nearby objects.

Proofing- yes- please make sure to leave lots of tracks and touch lots of things. We know Daisy is solid on odor, but she may be using your track as a guide to source. Such as follow dad?s track, find truffle, alert! When you do this, make sure you stand still in a few places as well as your odor will build up more in those areas. Place your truffle(s) in the middle of your ?tracks? as she doesn?t begin to make the association that it is near the terminus or beginning point.

Great she beat you out the door 🙂 LOVE enthusiasm. What?s really nice about that video is how she stays AT source and waits for you to get there. Really really nice.

VERY VERY interesting- and good of you to note- her following your odor. Make sure from now on, you proof every single time you go out. Dig some extra holes. Touch more things. If for some reason she seems to start struggling in some of these scenarios, decrease your search area and try again.

Nice job on the reward in that sequence.

The first time she dug at the base of the tree with no marker- was that one of your proofing spots? It?s just information for you and us, either way.

What?s nice is she doesn?t stay there or look to you as an alert, it?s more a curiosity/exploratory behavior. It?s ok that she does do that though. Dogs will often dig a bit to try and get a better read on the vocs in the area, but if it is a proofing spot, like I suspect, we need to make sure we start giving you more exercises for that. We don?t want Daisy to draw the association that a truffle also has to have Dad?s odor on it in order to get an alert. The hides you do today with your wife hiding them will give more information on that as well.

She has a VERY nice super gentle digging style in these videos. They may not hold in all situations, but it is really nice! I also see her do a nice nose touch on the tea ball too after the initial alert. Well done guys!

Video 11.14.3 is great. While she does dig at the fake hole first, what is fabulous is she then proceeds to move to where the real truffle actually is. I re-watched that video multiple times looking for the shift in behavior and what I was noticing again, is while she dug a bit, she didn?t offer you that visual alert as well, nor was as confident- and rightfully so.

When she finds the real target she doesn?t offer you a visual either but her alert is much more pronounced.

I am very curious to see what happens with your wife hiding them. Just trust in Daisy, and if you are unsure if she is alerting, go check it out, and if no target is there, simply continue on. You can verbally communicate with her, but don?t reward the act of the alert unless there is a target to follow it up. This is going to be a bit a of a learning curve, but we will see! I have every confidence Daisy understands target odor, as she picked it up at 0:22 in that video- but doing blind hides is almost more about handlers than dogs! So just trust in her, and when she does find it- even if it is after a couple of these fake attempts. Big party!

You are doing a great job on the parties by they way.

If it is getting stressful- remember you can always manufacture a success for her.

Video: 11.14.4: It?s a pretty big area for Daisy to be checking- and she is doing a great job setting her own boundaries within it- but that also may be why she is using your track as a map to the area.
Great job at 0:37 encouraging her through verbal communication to refocus on a different area- and orienting your own body in that direction as well. When she finds it she is pretty persistent, which is really nice. And she offers the nose touch re-alerts again! WOOHOO. That?s fab.

Overall it looks good. Let?s see how it goes when they are blind hides, and remember to try and leave lots of ?your? odor all over the place. And trust her!

As for the 201 course:

The 201 course is basically complete, we are having technical issues with it.

An alternative if that doesn?t get up and running soon is what we have been suggesting to other students, is to consider taking the FE520 & FE530 classes over at Fenzi Dog Sport Academy.

Coming up for the December term FE530: “Let?s go Truffle hunting- Practical application & sustainability? is being offered. It is practical application and transitioning into the forest and that term starts December 1st- it is a 6 week class.

We have been suggesting to other students interested, because of our technical glitches, to take that class in tandem with the written material from FE520 ($65) and then we offer to provide you with the complete 201 material as soon as those technical problems are figured out.

We?d be happy to work with you at whatever level you & Daisy are at for that course- but to get all the material covered in 201 you?d have to purchase the FE520 ($65) as well. But we could work our way through wherever you are at. There are several teams in the current FE520 who are about at the same level you & Daisy are at, so you would have a lot to compare it to and garner ideas.

FE520 & FE530 are basically the 201 course, broken down a bit different. You should be able to purchase the FE520 class beginning in the December Term, as we start FE530 over there as well, if you?re interested.

What?s nice about the fenzi classes is students are extremely active with questions and videos, and there is a lot of other talk and material on truffles themselves, and lots of other topics. As you?ve noticed with other students on our own forums- currently, it is relatively quiet apart from you.

You may actually find there are other courses on the Fenzi site as well that may interest you for Daisy. It is a great group to instructors, and a nice, easy to use platform.

Much of it I am in the process of transferring to forums on our site as well.

So if you are interested in that- here?s the Link for FE530 http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/2024

Again, we are happy to work with you & Daisy at whatever level you are at- but if you do decide to do that we strongly encourage the purchase of the FE520 as well- as there is some critical info in there prior to you and Daisy being in the forest. Just a thought.

[Chris]

yes. she is digging at the proofing spots. sometimes she digs at the holes where we already pulled truffles out when she is having trouble. i usually just ignore this and she moves on. it’s not an alert dig, because she doesn’t look up at me (and she knows there is no truffle there).

right. so we went out to find the 4 truffles my wife hid. they cooked for about two hours and she did thorough proofing. the whole family was there so there was some commotion. after finding 2 out of 4 she got some cacti in her paw and the session ended when she ran off after one of our cats, the one that hates dogs and runs away from them.

we went out again hours later on lead and she found the other two truffles fairly easily. i will stay away from the cacti from now on.

the cat chasing really bummed me out. i feel that we have set her up for this with our stuffed animal playing and hard fetches.

when she was little (8,9 weeks) and we first tied up a stuffed animal on a string, she stalked it like a cat, or like a bird dog to be exact. i really wish i had seen the following video and worked on the stalk and point, rather than the catch and kill. we were simply thinking fun, exercise, get the energy out, but now she is conditioned to chase. WE have put the energy IN. the stalking behavior is gone. i realize this is partly because puppies are more cautious, and so i am worried that she may have lost the ability to stalk for good.

i am trying this with her now and rewarding pointing, but she doesn’t really get it and her points do not have the lifted leg like when she was a puppy. i can’t think of how to really get this working without a longline and an assistant. i am also interested in mouth exercises to refine soft holding and dropping of objects.

i’m glad to have found fenzi, as that may offer some other courses to help with this sort of impulse control. are all the courses $65? so we are talking $130 to move into FE530 on dec. 1? do they offer multi-course packages or subscriptions? should i ask for a scholarship? we are not making any money over here, and the amount of courses i would like to participate in is a little overwhelming. FE220? OB510? is there some other less expensive curriculum i could follow for obedience and skill refinement? fenzi is daunting, but with some sort of package tuition, daisy and i could be year-round students.

maybe i should check my local trainers again? traci stood me up twice, and then when we finally got together for 30 min. we just did truffle work. not what i needed help with. :/

[Chris]

tracking, IPO, BAT? daisy wants all that!

[Alana McGee]

Yeah- the digging on your proofing spots and on trace odor in complex scenarios is a frustrated behavior because she is going to what has produced success in the past.

Keep proofing and ignoring, encouraging away from those scenarios when it happens.

Cacti in the paw is never good! Poor Daisy!

Hard fetches and stuffed animal play don?t create those tendencies in of themselves. Don?t beat yourself up over it. She has a prey drive and you can see it in hunting. Cats running away creates a stimulus reaction that is really hard for most dogs to ignore even when conditioned to it- especially those with stalk/chase prey drives. Even bird dogs who point, usually do have a chase/ bite instinct- it has just been suppressed through training, and the pointing alert rewarded until the dog is released to chase.

You can Praise, click, treat reward Daisy when she is near said kitty (and this can mean even within like 200 ft) and sees it, but then returns attention to you. Takes practice, but it is doable to close that gap and distance over time. Will they ever be friends? Doubtful, but you never know.

A lot of dogs stalk at some point in their lives. It won?t necessarily be a natural adult behavior for her, so know that. You can encourage and reinforce it when it does happen- but you want to be careful because it can manifest in ways you don?t intend. SO if you want to nurture that aspect of her personality, we would recommend working with a gun dog trainer specifically. Of which neither Kristin nor I are. I know some about it, but frankly I am not qualified or experienced enough in that realm any more than a general trainer would be.

You may know this but the chain of behaviors is as follows: eye (or orient)- stalk- chase- bite- kill bite- dissect- consume.
All dogs fit somewhere on this chain of behaviors in what they manifest. Certain breeds omit certain aspects- and that?s why you have a border collie and also a golden retriever. They manifest different traits.

I would argue she does still point- I saw it in one of the videos!!! You just have to try to capture those moments as they arise, or try to create scenarios specifically for that purpose! You can do that kind of with pulling a toy along the ground and shaking it, and if she hesitates at all (or points!) and i mean AT ALL- you can click and reward that. A lot of it would be timing in the beginning. But again, Gun dog behaviors- of which this specific behavior you are talking about belongs to that group- are not my specialty.

She may not have a lifted leg like when she was puppy, but remember, think incrementally. Just like you have done with alerts in truffle training. Build to the alert (in this case the point and the leg lift) gradually. Over time, and with some clever and timely reinforcement, you can teach her just about anything.

There likely are some Fenzi courses that can help with this as well. I haven?t checked the current upcoming schedule recently to remember what is there for this specifically, but read through- and if you have questions, we can try to answer if we know.

There are 3 levels at Fenzi. Bronze is $65, Silver is $130, and Gold (where you participate actively by sending videos- like you do here- and have discussion) is $265. Bronze you can read all the written material, and read the forums for that class for as long as they are up (which is about 8 weeks)- Lecture material you have for a 1 yr, but you can?t ask questions. Silver is in-between. You can ask questions about assignments or what is going on, but you don?t post videos for analysis.

I don?t know if they have a package tuition. You could certainly email Fenzi and ask for them to create that option (I bet it would be popular), but pretty sure they don?t as of right now. She does offer scholarships and there is a Tab at the top of the website that goes over that.

We can try to help you locate a local trainer if you want to email us what kinds of things you are looking for as we do have contacts who may know someone in your area. But I would think there would be gun dog trainers in your area- just be careful with that and ask questions to the prospective trainer to make sure they fit within what you are thinking of in terms of methods used.

Love your enthusiasm for all the classes offered at Fenzi and your general enthusiasm and dedication and focus in training Daisy. It is commendable!

There really are world class instructors teaching there, and that?s why we mentioned it. We think you & Daisy would fit in well with the student base who is very active and engaged with their dogs. Meant as a compliment. But yes, lots of great offerings. I want to take many myself 🙂

[Chris]

tis the busy season here. i will keep checking in as much as possible.

[Chris]

went out today and hid four truffles. daisy did great with a 20 minute cook and found all four.

i hid them again and forgot about them for a couple of hours. i think the smell wore off the q tips a little because when we went back she only found 1 of 4. there’s still one out there somewhere.

she was on lead. when is it o.k. to lead her/bring her back to the right area? i know she is supposed to lead, but i can only follow her away from our little hunting area so much.

[Alana McGee]

That?s great she found all 4 in the first run.

It may not be the Q-tips. Take the wind and other environmental factors into account too when thinking about why. Glad you decided not to push it too much tho. The odor really shouldn?t dissipate that fast, but for whatever reason perhaps was being blown away. It?s possible it dissipated, but just look at other factors too.

So, leading away off odor.

We talk about this more in either for you 201 or FE530. In general, use your discretion in terms of size of area outside of where you are searching, but err on the side of less! If she?s 10 feet out of the zone you want, coax her back in and remain stationary (thus she can?t move more because she?s on leash) and reorient your body the way you want her to go and see if that helps re-engage her where you want.

You do NOT want it to be a pulling of any kind, just an oppositional reflex. She should, with coaxing as well, be relatively responsive to this. IF she herself has a strong opposition reflex (aka pulling back) after your initial stop after about 3 seconds, coax her but also lower you body posture closer to the ground (ideally at an angle to her/ facing the truffle hides) with loose shoulders and presence. It?s a more inviting posture to dogs and so you may be able to draw her back that way as well.

Try that, or set up a camera when you are practicing it if possible so we can see what it looks like and advise further on it.

[Chris]

still doin it. took a step back and not burying as deep/thoroughly. she has bee finding them inside and out.

we have also been working on controlling the chase and kill impulse. she even stopped on command from chasing said cat (once)! i would love to work on mouth precision in some other class.

it is still busy time so we are not working every single day. should be back to everyday by thanksgiving.

can you talk to me a little about the trufferie industry, demand for truffle dogs’ work, seasons as it moves around the country for different species? it looks like there are some pecan farms down the rio grande, but not sure if the truffles only grow with georgia pecans or what.

[Alana McGee]

Hi Chris- Working on a response from a plane and trying to get it to upload. Bear with us!

[Alana McGee]

Hi Chris

So I was also just talking with some Gun dog folks last night and we were discussing some of the things we discussed about pointing and that dropping off as a behavior.

Apparently, it is quite common for pointing gun dogs, for the point behavior to naturally turn into a flushing (chase) behavior over time and with experience.

And that is GREAT she stopped mid chase! fabulous!

So the topic of Pecan Truffles, and the state of the industry in general is a big one.

Innoculated farms exist in most states, even Colorado. The fact of the matter is however that most orchards/ truffieres of inoculated trees (not necessarily unintentional planting of Pecan truffle infected trees) are young and there for only just now even being in the window of starting production. Many are only a few years old.

Pecan truffles are a little different.

We don?t know how long intentionally infected Pecan truffle trees take to fruit. General guess is the same window as European species and that puts it at 5 to 12 years after planting.

There are, to my current knowledge active intentional and unintentional pecan truffle orchards all over the south and plains states (Georgia, Louisana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, alabama, Indiana, the Carolinas, Arizona, Texas being a big one, California, and likely other states- those are just the ones I know of personally.)

In those places with ?orchards? for it- they are indeed predominantly on Pecan trees (Carya illinoensis) which are in the Hickory family, but also on Oak (Querqus) and hazelnut and chestnut as well.

Season will vary for Pecan truffles but generally August thru December in various states on those orchards.

Wild Pecans are a bit different and I will talk about them more in another thread. You can read more about them here: http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty/smith/Smith-et-al-2012-Pecan-Truffle-BW.pdf

The season for Perigords is in the winter. Dec- March, but again, most orchards are currently in the 3 year old range. They exist all over the country, and there are some productive ones, and there is a demand for qualified dogs, but working on orchards is a bit different enterprise than harvesting in the wild, with different trials and tribulations. Right now harvesting on Perigord plantations is limited, and generally limited to the Mid atlantic states (Tennessee, NC, Virginia) and the west coast Napa to BC

Burgundies/ summer truffle have been planted in many places, but most are too young to start producing. There are a few producing in North America. Their season ranges again, depending on where they are located. Truffieres in BC will have different seasonality than those in North Carolina.

There is a growing demand for qualified dogs for survey work and also soon for more harvesting/ location services.

This is a brief kind of outline, I will try to flush it out a bit further in the next day or so once I have reliable internet and more time. If you have specific questions you want to know it will be easier for me to respond.

In general the Truffiere scene in the US is its infancy, but expanding rapidly. We will see even more production this year and it will keep growing and the science has been improving dramatically. There are very few currently qualified dog/ handler teams in all of the country at this point who have the knowledge or experience harvesting on orchard like settings, but there is a big demand for them. What generally is needed are more dogs in more locations. So you being situated in Colorado is actually a really good thing. You are one of only a handful of teams developing in a multi state area where there are commercial and wild harvests.

More later!

[Chris]

awesome. thanks. i will be getting a couple more videos up today to show off how far we have come in this course. it has really been excellent. am i still waiting to hear about fenzi or should i just go ahead and register for 530?

specific questions regarding the truffiere conversation:
do you have any t. melanosporum?
do you have any tips for approaching orchard owners/managers/pecan growers for 1. practice and 2. work once you are a reliable team? it seems most pecan growers are still oblivious to the truffles. with all of our monsoons this year, i reckon there’s a bumper crop of t. lyonii down in las cruces. there may be a chance to get down there yet this year.

[Alana McGee]

We always love more videos! Glad you have liked it, and yes it has been great fun to watch you guys progress.

The registration for the next classes at Fenzi isn’t open yet (and have’t heard back yet)- but remember you’re going to want to get the stand alone material at FE520 too as it covers a lot of the transitioning.

And we have a lot of other material on truffles themselves we plan on posting on the forums here, it’s just about finding time. All of that should be on the fenzi forums too when you take that class.

As for T. mel. Right now we don’t as it isn’t in season yet, but we will have access to fresh and frozen and likely locally USA grown T.mel during the season, so can get you some.

Also you shouldn’t be practicing on orchards that produce until you are ready for a few reasons, one being that you don’t want Daisy to walk past a truffle, smell it and not alert. If that happens what you have just done is reinforced that that behavior is acceptable. Not to say she would do that, but on an orchard that is producing odor is much denser and can be confusing- we discuss a bunch of aspects on how to handle things like that in the FE530

We know it is REALLY tempting to do so (and at some point you do have to make that leap), but in the long run it is way better, and you will avoid future issues if you work on the transitional stuff before you try to locate in producing orchards or forests. We want you and Daisy to find EVERY SINGLE truffle you come across, not just some of them- and for Orchard work, this is actually critical as there is a more of a monetary aspect to it.

Orchard work is just a bit different too as it can be easier in some aspects and a lot harder and frustrating in others, not to mention you are also dealing with specifics of land owners and a whole host of other things and different kinds of distractions than in the forest.

Do you think you want to work on Orchards eventually? Because if so in the later courses we should tailor your experience to that or mention other key aspects as Orchard work and forest work, while similar and use the same skills, are approached differently.

Orchard owners (Esp. or European species) often are pretty darn reserved, for good reason so it can be difficult to break into that- but you can always just ask them. Often they have had good and bad experiences with various dog teams already so you sometimes are fighting a headwind. If you are interested in working on orchards We also are looking for teams in your area to eventually handle the demand there, so that is an option as well and we have all the legal mumble jumbo, best practices etc and experience of working on them to help support teams like yourself who are interested and want to work in those places. just a thought 🙂

The pecan orchard scene in general is ripe to explode (as in they need dogs) A little bit about it is educating farmers like you said, many probably don’t even know they have a possibility of truffles- and right now those that do- very few have dogs. Most pecan growers throw them away! Not realizing there is a culinary marketplace for them. We are working on changing that and there are some consortiums in the south working on it too, but it takes a while. BUT it does mean you are at the foundation of what will be a more robust industry. It’s just a matter of time 🙂

[Chris]

this is all very exciting. yes we are definitely interested in orchard work.

i get what you are saying. basically be patient and be ready. and i imagine that transition would be helped by fencing off a small section of a producing orchard for new trainees? but i was watching toby and appa in georgia and appa wasn’t finding every truffle (though she found a lot). is appa a less serious dog? obviously that occasion was more for research than money. i could see how you better find every single one for the swanky european species growers. of course, how would they know if you missed one? and what about moments in the orchard when the “find it” command is off (walking home)? i suppose i will have to wait until the next episode.

that class is 2 weeks away. how could registration not be open? it looked to me like they were going to let me register. i will talk to you about this on the email.

on the topic of chasing and bird dog training: we have been using the above puppy bird dog exercise along with very specific voice commands and a clicker, and it has worked wonders for impulse control and more. we have almost mastered the “wait/leave it”, “get it” and “drop it” commands, and the “slow” or “easy” stalk has reappeared and is coming along. variations include throwing the bird/toy and practicing on our resident cats and deer. vids to follow.

[Chris]

first time out in the rain. the rain starts off light and isn’t too bad. this is our first try of the day. apparent failed proofing. flag/odor fail. and then she walks around/by the truffle sooo many times. is this when i should drop another truffle out of my pocket? the good news: she keeps trying for much longer than the video shows.

this video begins about one minute into our second try and includes a very nice sequence of three finds. i am trying hard to let her lead.

it is raining harder and daisy is not into it. she is trying to hide under me. proly should have just quit.

she eventually finds a truffle and does not even alert.

and finally finds one and does alert.

and she’s done with this cold rain.

we go inside and find truffles in there, spoiled by the warm fire. she can search the whole (1200 sq ft) house.

[Alana McGee]

“i imagine that transition would be helped by fencing off a small section of a producing orchard for new trainees? ? For Orchard work, YES absolutely. That?s not always a luxury we have with European species of truffles, but in an ideal world- you betcha!

This is exactly what we are doing now with students here in the PNW just learning to get real truffles out of the ground in a site. You section off small places you know are productive and even have some marked and then those teams can work on skills in those areas.

Appa is a serious dog and Toby & Appa have a fabulous connection & rapport.

But Appa feels pressure too in situations with lots of people etc. Toby knows and doesn?t ?ask? him to ?work” in those scenarios in the same way. A lot of dogs are that way. He?ll be the first one to tell you it?s all about connection and being in tune with each other.

What we are doing for orchards is a different style of training. When we train for commercial work our goal is always to have the dog find every single truffle they come across the scent column for. A dog will not hit every single scent column and dense areas can be complicated, as can truffles that are deep. On orchards dogs missing truffles is lost revenue. You will know if something is missed on an orchard by another dog coming through right after and finding them (generally speaking) It can?t be an ?exact’ science until we have robots to help. That?s why we proof for it in controlled conditions so we can be more assured of accuracy later.

It looks like FE520 is not actually available for purchase as a stand alone this round I apologize, which complicates things as that material is really where you guys are at as it is transitioning to the edge of the forest. Registration opens on Saturday. I?ll talk to Kristin about what we think would be the best option in that case. You have been doing some of this already by working in much larger areas. But you should be successfully burying at the edges of forests prior working in them as the difficultly level goes up dramatically Jumping right to the forest may be a little too much.

This was your first time in the rain? Rain does change things, so it is not necessarily surprising.

In video 11.14. 5 where was the truffle? was it actually anywhere in that vicinity? If I knew that, might be able to provide more insight. Depending on where the real truffle was you could do a couple of things: just continuing on is ok as you did in that (IF IF IF) the truffle was not actually anywhere in the vicinity. If the truffle was, yes, you should help her more by getting down, patting the ground, provide her that target.

It?s great that she?s hunting for longer and longer periods of time, she certainly seems to be gaining endurance, but if you feel like it?s gone on a while and she keeps dancing around a source- that is indeed when you offer her the success. So yes.

Again Rain changes how the odor moves through the environment so she?s trying to work it out. I certainly don?t see anything alarming about that one. She certainly is trying, but if the truffle was close to where she was, yes, help her out more for a success.

Video 11.14.6
REALLY AWESOME nice reward on your part 🙂 She does an excellent job of moving on then to the next one. Pretty flawless transition. You?re giving her nice space. GREAT job around 0:46 encouraging more precise alerts and re alerts with nose touches. Very very good!

I love the ?forgot where I put it?. Those are always the most fun hides, because you have to completely trust them! She does a good job battling minor distractions in that one when searching for the 3rd hide. 1:32 we love how unsolicited she goes back for a nose touch on target. That is exactly the kind of thing you strive for as a goal and that skill is so helpful later. GOOD job asking her to do it again after a reward as well. Keep that up.

11:14:7
Good job recognizing her signals. You can tell by those fabulous ears of hers she?s uncomfortable and her body is tense. Lesson learned. It?s hard to stop sometimes, but we learn something from every experience. Daisy certainly will work for you in conditions she doesn?t love, but that doesn?t mean she should 🙂 * She gives you the cutest face there at about 0:19- but yeah that?s a sign of being uncomfortable. Watch her tail too. Normally when she is hunting it is not erect, but up or slightly above level curving towards her back very slightly with a little wag to it. In this video it is down and under. You saw it though and thats good.

If you can in those scenarios (and it happens to all of us- It is one of the hardest parts of truffle hunting) remove you and Daisy from the situation causing the unpleasantness? in this case the rain- and do a small success game somewhere calmer, quieter and more relaxed (dry) so you can end on a win. If you can?t do that and the situation is overload, WAY better to just get out of there, and then if you can, play. Something to ?shake off? the stress. Just like as a human you?ll do that or shrug your shoulders to relax a bit, you just want to release the stress a bit. But end it there, you are correct. But you learn from it.

11.14.8 She does find it, and you are spot on to come and help to support because you see she is uncomfortable. She does give you that very soft, subtle? “I found it–approach dad” alert with a look (0:11/0:12), and she does step back towards it likely from pressure of your advance as she backs up (which is ok 0:14? there is the fence in play here too that she is interacting with which is decreasing the amount of space she has to move around to be comfortable and show you) and then turns back to it and gives a ?look at target? alert at 0:16 when you ask her. It seems like she stares right at it. ?It?s there dad. It?s there? but she doesn?t want to offer more. It?s subtle and she?s knows it?s there. These are the little minutia that are good to get comfortable with because they will come up in the field at times when she is uncomfortable. Understanding the little subtle communications will help you later in complex scenarios with real truffles in the wild. While we don?t want to subject ourselves to it over and over- it?s a good experience to have had.

That?s a good spot to offer her a really easy one in your hand (if you have it ready) win, and exit the scene.

11:14:10 That is hilarious, and fabulous actually. She?s very clear. I also think it is great you then went inside ands did a bit in there for more fun- away from the weather- exactly like I was mentioning above.

Well Done Chris. It really has been great to watch you guys go through it. Let me talk to Kristin tomorrow about what we should do because of where you are at in regards to FE530. Obviously we will work with you where you are at, but the lectures from FE520 are what you need- I think I may have thought of an idea- but we?ll get back to you on it.

[Author]

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