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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.
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.
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.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.
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.
tis the busy season here. i will keep checking in as much as possible.
tracking, IPO, BAT? daisy wants all that!
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. :/
yes. 10.14.7, 8, and 9 were in sequence on a multiple hide. here is another multiple hide from yesterday. 10 minutes of cooking:
in this first one she has beat me out the door (i was grabbing the camera) and is already all over the truffle when i get there.
she is obviously doing a great job of following my scent. i will proof more next time.
so much for keeping the area small. in this one i have placed the flag at a decoy hole, which she checks first. i will try ditching the flags and remembering which trees i’m hiding under. alternatively, i will mark the trees well above the ground.
lots of opuntia to dodge…
today i had my wife hide the truffles and i am planning on letting them cook for several hours. of course, now i am afraid to let her outside because she will probably go find them without me.
how is setting up the 201 course going? we are anxiously awaiting a winter vacation to a real truffle spot!
here are three videos from today’s single target outdoors with cooking times of 5 – 10 minutes.
question: would you agree that the smell of t. lyonii hints of asiago cheese?
first three here is her first hunt of the day. super high energy. video does not show much of her search but she usually finds it right away. i will continue to challenge her. high value treats also evoke this super high energy. can treats ever be too high value?:
she found it and i didn’t have any treats with me.:
in this one she finds the truffle after she has passed it about five times (not all the passes are in the video).:
7, 8, 9 here are a multiple hide outside. the first one we are both having trouble pinpointing the truffle, but she persisted at the source and we found it.:
here she gives a little point before pawing:
here she finds it but i help her pinpoint it a little.
i have seen a few times now where the scent column turns her whole body around. so that’s good.
a few other times i have seen her go straight to the target, look up at me, walk away from it and then come back to it and alert after an encouraging find it command. its like she is testing me to see what is the least she can do to get the treat.
she is very paw-happy. she bats everything with her paws. i think that is her main alert. every morning for our first greeting she puts her paw over my arm while i’m petting her.
and her toes are webbed! i love this dog. what a good girl!
down to a week and a half. please make it count.
what that looks like is just “this is taking too long. i’m going to go eat some horse poop or a deer leg or take a nap.” she has different energy levels – high, medium, low. its simply a downgrading of energy level when prep is taking too long. i’m doing the easy kitchen games while prepping and that is great. she could go all day. i wish i had all day to give her. high value treats seem to keep her energy insanely high as well.
can i ditch the clicker? it seems obsolete at this point. i get the vibe that daisy thinks it is obsolete. i don’t see it in your videos much. its much easier to film without it.
can you elaborate on the retrieving techniques you mentioned the italian trainers will use? daisy really enjoys bringing me the truffle and has handed me targets several times when training. i think this could be beneficial. she loves retrieving.
more film coming soon.
can you go through what an actual hunt generally goes like? how much time spent and how to handle the dog and treats and truffles? how do you carry truffles through the woods? i’ve seen some internet videos and just wondering what your real hunt looks like. what’s the goal here?
one of the things i really want to train her away from is over excitement when meeting new people/strangers/dogs. how much of this is trainable? how much will she grow out of? when we are in a busy public space or there are many people/dogs she is very calm or panting/wanting her den. when someone is new one-on-one or in private she can get very excited and bark at them and/or jump up on them. traci seems to just ignore this as puppy behavior. do you have a technique for staging a houseguest/door knock scenario? our last big dog was the worst at jumping on people and our second to last big dog was the worst at charging and barking at people, especially on the beach. we are trying to avoid these behaviors. what does it take to get a dog so on a mission and un-distracted as the dog in this video? also, is this video for reals?:
hi. respect!
we got off the wagon a little bit there. the spay didn’t phase her at all. we are still playing the games, inside and out. she always seems to find the hot target. no real truffles yet, but then again, we don’t even know if any exist here!
i’ve been using a small piece of the paper towels you included with the frozen truffles. is this sufficient? it seems to lose odor after a while.
also just making sure its o.k. to switch between different truffle species regularly.
the hardest part is the timing with the cooking and everything. it seems to take an hour just to get two or three reps in. daisy gets all excited when i’m preparing the targets and treats, but has lost interest/accepted defeat by the time they’ve cooked.
thank you.
daisy is getting spayed today. couple few days of rest.