Apollo (front) and Titan are family pets that have been turned into truffle hunters. Photo: Supplied.
Kirsty Tomas is spending her time trawling lost animal pages on Facebook as she wonders about the fate of her two truffle-dogs-in-training, Apollo and Titan.
Apollo and Titan do have a tendency to run off whenever the front gate of Tomas Truffles — between Captains Flat and Braidwood — is opened.
Usually they return within 24 hours, looking for their dinner and a few belly rubs.
The Tomas family does what they can to mitigate escapes — their front gate has a padlock and chain, and warning signs asking people to keep the gate closed and give them a call for entry.
All of this happened on Sunday, 28 June, but the boys still managed to give the family the slip when visitors came for a truffle hunt.
“[My husband] had Titan on a tube rope and opened the gate, but he was just so excited, he just ditched and he ran, and then Apollo followed,” Kirsty said.
German Shepherd Apollo was a Christmas present for her eldest daughter, and Aussie Shepherd Titan followed as a Christmas present for her twins.
Then the Tomases started thinking about the dogs’ potential to help on the farm.
“Usually we have to pay for people to come, to bring along their dogs and book them well in advance,” Kirsty said.
“Last year we had a professional come in and she did the hunt, but we had Titan and Apollo getting trained at the same time.
“This year was actually Titan’s first official hunt year and he did really well, he’s a natural to it.”
Now the Tomases are looking at not only being without their family pets, but at forking out about $1000 a week to hire a truffle dog to let them know the produce is ripe.
Truffle farms take a long time to establish.
It takes about a year to prepare the soil, and then another seven to eight years for the French oak trees to mature enough that they start producing the truffles along their roots.
Harvesting is reliant on dogs (and traditionally, pigs) to pick up the scent of a ripe truffle underground.
“Any other farming, no matter what it is, you can physically see [your produce] and go, ‘Oh look, we’ve got a bumper crop’,” Kirsty explained.
“Truffles, you can’t. All you can do is run the dogs through, hope that they mark, and then you mark that as the dogs go through and you physically go back and, where they’ve marked, you grab the soil and you smell it.
“If it’s got a really good aroma, then you hand dig up everything. If you don’t have the dogs to do that, you quite literally have to walk along the rows and hope to see the cracks [in the soil] of them crowning.”
Dog training takes about two years, and you need access to ripe truffles so the dogs can learn what they smell like.
Hunts are usually undertaken one to two times a week across 10 weeks during harvest season.
It now won’t be possible for the Tomases to harvest everything that’s ready to be picked this year.
Neighbours have kindly offered their dogs for the occasional run through the truffle trees, but it’s not the same as having your own animals on hand.
The boys also gave the family a sense of safety and security on the farm.
“Apollo, being a guard dog, he will always be roaming, doing the perimeter check … so they were our protection, they were our alert,” Kirsty said.
“We’re now feeling unsafe because we don’t have two guard dogs protecting us. Even my mother, who lives with us, told me, ‘I never felt worried about being here because I always knew those boys were there … now, if I’m sitting alone in the house, I’m worried that someone can just come in’.”
Kirsty’s now kept up at night wondering if her dogs are stuck somewhere in the Tallaganda State Forest or have accidentally (or on purpose) been shot by hunters.
By now the family suspects they’ve been picked up by someone who’s decided to keep the boys for themselves rather than have their microchips scanned at the vet or pound.
It’s the not knowing that’s the hardest to take.
“At the end of the day, they’re not just workers, they’re part of our family,” Kirsty said.
She understands if the dogs were attacking livestock, and a farmer needed to take matters into their own hands.
All the family wants is to have the boys back, and say goodbye if they must.
“If someone’s got them, we’ll pay the reward — yes, they’re our working dogs, but they were our pets first,” Kirsty said.
“You don’t just take people’s dogs.”
Anyone with information about Apollo and Titan’s whereabouts is urged to call 0411 294 999. They were last seen running east towards Parlour Creek Road at the end of Harolds Cross Road. The matter has also been reported to police.
