Also called: Truffle Dog Handler, Truffle Forager
Trains dogs to sniff out truffles, rare underground mushrooms worth hundreds of dollars a pound, in forests and orchards.
In the damp Oregon forest or a planted truffle orchard, the hunter walks with a dog trained to find the smell of ripe truffles. When the dog digs, the hunter gently pulls the truffle out by hand and rewards the dog. Back home they clean, grade and sell truffles to chefs, and teach other people to train dogs.
Seasonal; most combine hunting, sales and dog training.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. Learned by training dogs and studying fungi.
Ways in: Self-taught, Apprenticeship. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Mycology, Forestry.
Growing faster than average. U.S. truffle orchards are slowly growing.
Low risk for 10 years. A trained dog’s nose and a person in the forest cannot be replaced by software.
Classes: Biology, Environmental science, Agriculture CTE class.
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