Mold-detection dogs verify, isolate problem

Hotel & Motel Management, Nov 1, 2004 by Stacey Mieyal Higgins

Just as dogs can be used to find drugs, bombs and lost slippers, they also can sniff out mold hiding in the walls.

Dogs are more effective than air sampling because they go a step further than telling you if mold is present with quicker and more accurate results, said Bill Whitstine, certified master trainer and owner of MoldDog, a subsidiary of the Florida Canine Academy in Safety Harbor, Fla.

Whitstine's MoldDog training program produces mold-detection dogs with 1,000 hours of training. The dogs are recertified annually and tested quarterly.

"It works just like a drug dog," he said. "The dog sniffs in a pattern and sits at the source of the mold."

One member of the MoldDog alumni network, Jason Earle, owns and operates Princeton, N.J.-based Lab Results LLC, which services the New York, Philadelphia and Boston areas.

Oreo, a Labrador-mixed breed, is the resident mold tracker at Lab Results.

The company spends a lot of time educating people about mold, according to Earle.

"We offer education, especially to maintenance staff, for them to handle things on their own," he said. "Most staff has become jaded to the whole mold and moisture thing--they see it every day and they don't think it's a threat. We show them all the real data."

Earle's company also uses infrared thermal imaging to find hidden pockets of moisture, which are conducive to mold growth.

"The cameras are used in conjunction with the dogs because dogs aren't able to get to certain areas in buildings and cameras don't detect mold," he said. "We use them together to corroborate our hypotheses."

Traditional methods, such as air sampling, should still be used to confirm or refute the presence of mold, he said.

"We use these [screening] methods to enhance the conventional technologies in a more efficient way," Earle said.

Mold-detection-dog company should charge by the project, not the hour, Whitstine said. And it should cost the same or less than other mold inspection methods.

Property owners should always take a preventative approach to a moisture problem, Earle said.

"If you don't fix a mold problem, it will multiply and so will the costs," he said.

There are about 50 dogs in the MoldDog network, according to Earle.

Many of the dogs that go through training with Whitstine were rescued from local animal shelters, trained as mold hunters and sold.

"Most of the dogs were troublemakers because they were intelligent and wanted something to do," he said. "So we give them a task."

And don't worry about Fido inhaling potentially harmful mold spores, Whitstine said.

"They are sniffing, not inhaling," he said. "They are able to purge the spores."

shiggins@advanstar.com