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  • Ayme Truffe - Domaine de Bramarel
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The "CAVAGE" in French

The truffle search is very difficult because it exists no mechanic means that allows to find the truffle and nothing, or quite nothings shows the truffles presence. For this reason mans appeals, among other things, to the dog’s sense of smell.
Dogs only choose the ripe truffles wit hout touching the others.... astonishing.

The truffle search

Pleasure of "the cavage"

The dog explores the soil against the wind, with its nose on the ground. Suddenly it smells a ripe and perfumed truffle. It does not dig it up but marks the place with its paw. It is his master who digs up very cautiously the black diamond with a little hoe : the “Picolon” Satisfied, the dog accepts a modest compensation that consists of a piece of bread, a fragment of biscuit with the aroma of the truffle that it discovered just before. And the search continues with great enthousiasm and approval.
And the search continues with great enthousiasm and approval.

The training

One training method is to mix the perfume of the truffle with pieces of meat and to bury this mixture deeper and deeper.
The dog has to be taught that, for getting a compensation, it is sufficient to scratch slightly the soil at the place where it discovered the truffle.
Of course there are trainers who are specialized, but at our „domaine“ it is us who train our dogs

  • Train the dogs
  • Train the dogs
  • Train the dogs
  • Train the dogs

How train your truffle dog

Step 1 : take some truffles to eat to your dog until he loves it.

Step 2 : Your dog loves truffles. Play with your dog: Roll the truffle as a toy. Tell him to bring the truffle. And begin to hide the truffles inside the house (under a rug, a slipper ...), he can eat the truffle found in the house. The first time you hide the truffle, show him what a truffle is and where you've hidden.

Step 3 : Le chien trouve toutes les truffes cachées dans la maison : il faut qu'il apprenne à creuser la truffe. Commencez à cacher la truffe dans la terre, dans un bac de sable ou dans votre pelouse (à fleur de terre pour la 1ère fois, puis de plus en plus profond : maxi.10cm). Restez à côté de lui tout en l'encourageant ("cherche la truffe" ou "montre la T"... : choisissez un vocabulaire que vous utiliserez à chaque cavage).S'il n'y arrive pas aidez le à trouver la truffe, grattez avec lui si nécessaire. Interdiction de lui laisser manger la truffe sortie de terre. S'il le fait : lui ouvrir la gueule et récupérer tous les morceaux de truffe et lui dire : "NON ! : Ça c'est pour moi". et le récompenser quand même car il vous a trouvé la truffe.

Do not let him eat the truffle which is out of the ground. If he does : open his mouth and remove all pieces of truffle and say "NO ! : That is for me." and reward him anyway because he found for you the truffle. Be patient, never get angry (the dog may feel your anger and no longer want to work). If it does take an hour to play with your dog and you calm down. All training is made with the consent of the dog: Never force the animal to work (he must think it's a game).

Make sessions of 10 min separated by at least one hour between each training installation. You can do several times a day. BON COURAGE