A black sheep dog often sniffed out the good ones and let the second, a young mutt, dig out the truffle. Finally, the Lab liked to claim the discovery as his, so he would strut over to the truffle siting and sit regally, like someone posing with someone elses trophy. Antoine is a specialist in dog management. Whereas some truffle harvesters rely on Draconian methods to boost their dogs' efficiency, like depriving them of sight to increase the smelling sensitivity and depriving them of food for obvious reasons, Antoine has more of a positive reinforcement method. Since jealousy is inevitable to some extent, since only one dog finds the truffle, Antoine is especially vigilant not to show any bias for one dog over the other.
Every dog gets their share of raw meat.
A champion truffle dog is often the result of seven generations of mom and pop truffle dogs. Thats a heavy investment, but so is truffle growing. In fact, you have to count on 15 to 20 years before elm trees will start kicking up truffles. Truffle harvesting is an activity for the patient, and definitely not for people who are out to make the fast buck. Grabbing a piece of truffle land is surprisingly easy as its simply auctioned off by the mayor of the region, but establishing a reputation for yourself and dealing with centuries-old competition are two discouraging tasks for the newcomer.