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Ben has made my year, and my dog's, complete. Freddy has now finally found his first Brumale and Aestivum in the wild. Not in competition, not hidden by me. In the wild.
THE SHORT STORY
Why I made truffle dog training my life's work
In 2020 the pandemic turned my life upside down. My business collapsed, I went through bankruptcy, and I needed something to pull me forward. I didn't even have a dog yet.
Then a YouTube video mentioned that wild truffles grow right here in the UK. I'd assumed they were a French or Italian thing, dug up by old men with trained pigs. The idea wouldn't leave me alone.
Buddy arrived at the start of 2021, when we finally swapped London for a house with a garden. He was an ordinary family pet, and I was an ordinary owner with no scent work experience, just an obsession. I went at it at a hundred miles an hour and made every mistake you can make. I even bought fresh truffles before he arrived, ready to put under his nose on day one. If you've ever rushed your dog into something new, you know exactly how that went.
Everything changed when we slowed down. Foundations first: a confident, reliable dog who loved the work. The searching and the hunting came later, in the right order. And the difference wasn't just truffles. Our walks had a purpose, Buddy had a job he loved, and the bond between us was something else entirely.
I kept learning as we went: from brilliant trainers, from traditional hunters who knew the land and the field, and from modern, science-backed scent detection that traditional truffle training leaves on the table. Old school blended with new school became the BSH System: Build, Search, Hunt. If an ordinary owner and an ordinary family pet can get there, so can you and your dog.