Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1905 — English Truffle Dogs. [ARTICLE]

English Truffle Dogs.

Truffle dogs are very jealous workers. If one were to make himself too officious his companion would fall on and worry him. All the truffles do not grow underground, and In such a case the first few are gathered by the dogs from the surface. Occasionally the man is able to pick one or two himself. They are not quite ready for taking, however. No animal seems to be attracted by truffles only half grown and immature. The scent comes only when they are ripe. A copse may be hunted one day till apparently every truffle has been collected, and yet If visited after a short Interval will probably yield as many as before. Until they are mature the dogs cannot find them. Every time a truffle is found the dogs stop and look at the pocket where the bread Is in a begging attitude and do not begin to hunt again till after the “repay.” Food is doled out in the tiniest morsels, and yet before the day is over, though they still mechanically ask for the reward, they cease to eat it. They are the most tireless creatures imaginable. The assiduity of one In particular is extraordinary. I have seen her work from dawn until dark, collecting in that time nearly eight pounds of truffles, and yet with as much briskness and apparent enjoyment for the last as for the first. “She has the brains of a whole litter in her,” says the owner gravely. Her mother had only one puppy at her birth, and he sincerely believes that the talents which might have been divided between five or six were concentrated in one.—Longman’s Magazine.