Since I’ve lived here, I’ve discovered that almost each household owns its truffle dog since truffle hunting is very popular in this region. Training the dog is a very thorny subject as two schools exist.
The first one consists in imposing to the dog a rather strict discipline including less indulgence, meaning the dog doesn’t live in the house with the owner.
The secondo one, my favorite, is based on the game.
But in any case, includes a reward, as soon the dog has found a truffle.
I know from experience that the second one is not a less fruitful technique: one of my partner’s dog ended up sniffing truffles even under the asphalt and he used to reward his dog with a licorice each time he had found it.
There is no particular pedigree with truffle hunting. For many years crossbred dogs, mostly hunting dogs, were the most used dogs. Recently, many people have noticed that the « Lagotto Romagnolo » was particulary gifted for truffle hunting. However, finding the perfect dog remains almost impossible.
But everyone is good at finding truffles, and not everyone is good at truffle dogs. In fact, what really counts is the training.
The Langhe region abounds in truffles and Alba is its capital.