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Amanda Butterfield reportingLast night we showed you a family whose house was infested with mold so badly that it made the children sick and forced the family to move out.
Today we want to show you a unique way to detect mold in your house: a dog named Duke. He's the old mold-sniffing dog in Utah. Arthur and Kathy Flinton are very proud of Duke, who is a silky terrier.
This is a very educated dog that has undergone training for several months in Florida to sniff out mold. Arthur says, "He sniffs out and finds mold in the walls, under the floors, even tells me if it's on the ceiling."
Both Arthur and Kathy are certified mold inspectors. They got interested in mold-sniffing dogs when they learned Utah didn't have any like him. Arthur says every area needs a mold dog.
The couple found Duke through the Internet, a rescued dog from Miami, and then put him through extensive training.
Kathy says, "He's amazing. He can find all 18 genre of mold. It took him about four months."
To show us how Duke works, the Flintons hid mold samples throughout their garage and let Duke lead the way.
Arthur says, "For him [Duke], this whole thing is a game. But he takes it serious, and he wants to win."
He sits when he catches a whiff of the mold and points his nose exactly to where it is, and then a red sticker is put there to mark the spot.
Arthur points out that Duke smells 30,000 times what we do. But don't worry, all that sniffing isn't harming his snout. "What he is smelling is vapors, not the actual mold," explains Kathy.
The Flintons say they take Duke out on calls about three times a week, and when it comes to locating mold, they trust him more then any other piece of equipment out there. Kathy says Duke is right on the money every time.
For more information on mold and on mold dogs in Utah, click on the related links.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
