Dante’s First Season
· Ben Nardinelli
Dante is a shelter mix of no determinable breeding, which makes him unfashionable. Everyone wants a Lagotto Romagnolo. What you actually need is a dog that likes to use its nose and can be paid in cheese.
November
Useless, and loudly so. He found one truffle in three weeks and ate it before I got there, which set the training back a fortnight and taught him something I very much did not want him to learn.
December and January
The change came when I stopped rewarding the find and started rewarding the stop. A dog that digs is a dog that damages truffles and eats the evidence. A dog that finds, freezes and looks at you is worth keeping.
The dogs are in charge. You can direct them to ground you think is good, and they will tell you whether you were right.
March
By the end of the season he was working ground I had written off and coming back with ripe whites. He is now the dog I put in when a patch has gone quiet and I want a second opinion.
Luca is faster. Gina is more careful. Dante is the one I trust.