A hobby kennel
Our cocker spaniel truffle dogs
You can't see a truffle and you can't smell it. They can.
The breed
Why cocker spaniels
The kennel chose the English cocker spaniel for how it works: it stays close, it searches thoroughly, and it doesn’t get dragged off by game.
A truffle dog isn’t born, it’s made. Months of work to learn that one smell under the soil — and to stop, instead of eating it.
Our dogs are the reason we can say we dug this truffle up ourselves.
The kennel
A hobby kennel, properly kept
We're not a professional kennel and we don't want to become one. These are our dogs, they live with us, and there aren't many of them.
They are kept and trained by the same family that has been hunting truffles here since the 1980s.
The selection, though, is taken seriously: the lines and the males are chosen, and how a dog is built matters long before how pretty it is.
Trials
What we've won
Our kennel has multiple champion cocker spaniels in truffle trials — both retrieving and free search.
And then there's Leonardo, Sandro's son: Italian champion and regional champion, under 14, with Nerina.
Nerina is the family’s cocker. She is also the name every one of our products carries.
Medals, podiums, rosettes. They are not here to boast: they are the proof that the dogs actually work.
The stud dog
Zeus
Zeus is the stud dog of the La Scintilla kennel. He is available for stud.
- Pedigree — from a high-quality line
- Trials — years of wins in truffle-search competitions on the ring
- On white truffle — that is where he does best
- Temperament — steady, obedient, very gentle
- Health — hip and elbow X-rays certified ENCI A/0, Genefast genetic tests clear
Puppies
Litters
Every now and then we have a litter. It isn't scheduled on a calendar — it happens when it makes sense.
Message us and we’ll let you know. But we like to talk first — to understand where a puppy would go and what it would need.
Want to watch them work?
The dogs are part of the truffle hunt — and they're the part everyone enjoys most.