The truffle dog and the poor truffle pig

Allow me? Lagotto Romagnolo!

The truffle pig has had its day

As the day dawns, the first truffle hunters, the tartufari, set off to their secret locations. They don’t have any truffle pigs with them, because if you have a pig on a lead, it’s not hard to guess their intentions. Besides, pigs are wild for truffles and prefer to eat the delicacies they track down themselves. It is said that in times gone by, many a truffle hunter was missing a finger. Is it true? Who knows?

It is certainly not easy to fight with a 130 kilo pig over the underground delicacy. In Italy, truffle pigs have been banned since the 1980s because they always stirred up the ground so much in their truffle frenzy that no more truffles grew where they were found.

After the grape harvest, truffle season begins in Tuscany.

In Italy, only dogs are allowed to sniff for truffles

The best-known truffle dog breed is the Lagotto Romagnolo, a water dog breed whose curly coat is more reminiscent of a sheep than a pig. The Lagotto no longer has a hunting instinct and was originally bred to retrieve game that had been shot.

The truffle dog has many advantages over the pig. If you go for a walk with your dog as a Tartufari, you look inconspicuous. In addition, a dog has a lot of stamina and does not plow up the whole forest when it finds a truffle. Truffle dogs don’t care at all about the delicate mushrooms they are supposed to find.

It takes a lot of training before they respond to this type of prey. No puppy can do anything with truffles. Young dogs are introduced to truffles via lightly truffled food. precious mushrooms by lightly truffled food.

Truffle training for everyone

Incidentally, your dog can also learn how to find truffles. There are dog trainers in Germany who offer appropriate courses. But be careful! If you think it’s a good idea to go truffle hunting with Bello in Italy, you should know that every hunter needs a license from the Italian state.