August 23, 2024, 9:08 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Truffles are considered a rare and valuable delicacy. But to find the underground mushrooms, you need four-legged helpers. In Saarland, an expert offers courses on searching for truffles with dogs.
The students aren’t fully engaged this morning. Some are asleep during the lecture, while others are preoccupied with a toy. When they leave the classroom to go outside, they would rather run around instead of having to concentrate. However, their owners have grand ambitions for them. These dogs, enrolled in an adult education course in Merzig alongside their humans, are being trained to become truffle detection dogs.
Despite the differences between the Poodle, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and the mixed-breed dog, their owners share similar motives. They want to provide their dogs with meaningful activities and also hope to uncover delicious truffles with their assistance.
500 different truffle varieties in Germany – a vast search awaits the dogs
“But isn’t that forbidden?” This question always arises when course instructor Gabi Wenk talks about her work and hobby. She has been a truffle hunter – with a special permit – and hobby researcher with her greyhound Candy since 2018. In her own words, she has already discovered and documented 191 different species. This is good news for the participants who have booked her basic course, “Truffle Hunting with a Dog,” in Germany. Searching for wild truffles of the genus Tuber with up to 20 species and removing them from the ground is forbidden. “But when you consider that there are around 500 truffle species in Germany, we are still allowed to search for 480,” says the 73-year-old.
The course participants from the Saarland region also have another advantage. Because “truffle hunting is no problem at all in Luxembourg and France,” says Wenk. One participant journeyed over 600 kilometers from Hamburg to attend the workshop with “Rosa,” a mix between a Labrador and a Pointer. “Rosa loves to search, and I love to eat!” she says. She has even prepped her dog for the seminar. “For weeks, I’ve been adding a few drops of truffle oil to her food to acclimate her to the scent.”
Positive reinforcement for the dogs
Wenk is skeptical as to whether this will help. She prefers to use her tried-and-tested method. She has already used it to make truffle hunting appealing to around 60 dogs: real truffles. Initially, the dogs are permitted to sniff the truffle – receiving immediate and lavish praise and rewards for any sign of interest in the black fungus. Once they have familiarized themselves with this new smell, stage two follows. First, small pieces of truffle are placed in prepared sticks. “Look for truffles!” – or as with Candy: “Find mushroom!” – is the command. When the dog has developed a nose for the truffles and finds the prepared stick, it is praised lavishly.
The Spaniel, “Minnie,” is so captivated that she refuses to relinquish the wooden piece, so the first part is a success for her owners. Wenk is optimistic. Almost all the 70 or so dogs she has had on her courses so far have developed the necessary ambition and learned to search. Only one participant, a dachshund, has refused.
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Great demand for truffle dogs
Regardless, the demand for skilled truffle dogs is substantial. “There are simply not enough dogs that can search properly on plantations,” she says. She looks after two plantations in Luxembourg and one on the Moselle. She also advises interested parties who want to set up new plantations. “It’s important that we get enough truffles in Germany so that we don’t always have to source them from abroad.”
According to Markus Mayer from the Association for Truffle Cultivation and Use in Germany, interest in truffle cultivation has developed slowly but significantly in Germany over the past ten years. The head of the association’s office in Schallstadt im Breisgau estimates that around 600 people have planted over 500 hectares of truffle crops to date. Some plants are already in the full harvest phase, while many others are showing their first truffles. “The quality of these truffles is a good consistency and an excellent smell. They can compete with products from Italy and France,” says the biologist. Germany’s limestone regions are particularly favored for truffle cultivation.
“In Saargau and Bliesgau, there are truffles everywhere,” says Gabi Wenk. To equip participants with knowledge on where to search later, the seminar also delves into a substantial amount of theory. starting with the classification of the species (tubular mushrooms) and the special connection with trees (symbiosis) to the basic requirements in the soil (lime) and their indicators (arum and woodruff, as well as snails). If hazel, beech, oak, or linden trees are also present, the likelihood of a successful find increases.
With material from dpa