In September 2019 we were delighted to welcome Denise Stalder from dello Spirito del Bosco kennels in Switzerand to train us and our dogs in the art of truffle searching. Denise runs Truffle Workshops worldwide through her Trüffel Akademie Schweiz and is co-author of the book ‘Lagotto Romagnolo & Trüffel’. We learnt about the different types of truffles, how to identify likely areas and conditions that would support truffle growth, and also how to train and incentivise our dogs. We were also delighted to see Sasha Dorey who joined us on Day 1 with her experienced truffle dog, Ralf, to show us how it is done…
Some photos from our training sessions are included below:
The truffles that Denise brought with her for our training, sourced by her own dogs in Switzerland
Denise and Louise at the start of Day 1 with the truffles brought by Denise for the weekend's training
Denise hiding a truffle
Salle with Robin
Peppa with Dawn
Peppa
Luca with Steve
Flora
Flora
Sybil with Lyn
Sybil
Ricco with Julie
Ricco with Julie
Ricco practising for the CIL Raduno truffle trials!
Ricco's truffle find
Otto with Jude
Truffling Experience - Day 1 Group Photo
Grated truffle to accompany our lunchtime Truffle Risotto
Truffling Experience - Day 2 Group Photo
Dario with Andrew
An introduction to the truffle scent before leaving for the woodland
Margot and Brian awaiting their turn with Kath
Margot with Kath
Brian with Ben
Meme with Lynne
Api with Lynne
Hebe with Andrew
Hebe
Hebe with Andrew
Carlo with Trevor
Carlo!
Uhu with Manta
Savvy
Savvy with Julie
Luna was the star of Day 2, finding all three truffles that had been secretly buried whilst the dogs worked
Louise Ferguson's 'Thank You' to Denise