Inspections go to the dogs
For Williamson A.M. • July 11, 2008
FRANKLIN — The newest home inspection service in Williamson County is one that should have no trouble distinguishing itself from the competition. It uses trained dogs to sniff out three different kinds of home problems.
Mattie, a Dutch shepherd, and Sky, a chocolate Labrador retriever, are the star employees of Dog Inspectors LLC.
The pair is specifically trained to detect the presence of 31 different kinds of harmful mold in a home or commercial building, as well as termites and bedbugs.
And the beauty of this concept, owner Chuck Nelson said, is that the dogs don't have to see the problem to uncover it.
"They can smell through the walls," he said. "There's no need to cut into the walls to find the problem."
From rigorous training and their natural ability to smell thousands of times better than humans, the dogs' detection "reports" are "very, very accurate," said handler Diana Sosa, a professional dog trainer with 20 years of experience.
Mattie, who is 14 months old, reports the presence of mold by pointing with her nose, then sitting and looking up at Sosa. She reports termites by scratching at the floor or baseboard. Her reward is a chance to play with a special toy.
Twenty-one-month-old Sky reports the presence of bedbugs by sitting and pointing.
The two dogs were trained for this work at the Iron Heart Training Center in Kansas City, Kan.
Master trainer Tom Brenneman trains canines for professional detection and investigation work, including bombs, arson, narcotics, search and rescue, tracking and general police service as well as personal protection. His client list includes actress Cybill Shepherd and the king of Jordan.
Training took 700 hours
Mattie and Sky completed 600 hours of specialty training and 100 hours of obedience training to earn certification by the World Detector Dog Organization.
To be certified, the dogs and Sosa had to pass an extensive field test with 95 percent accuracy. In addition, the dogs and Sosa will have to be re-certified every 12 months to maintain the designation.
Mattie and Sky were selected not only because of their natural smelling abilities, but also for their superior instincts and temperament, Brenneman said.
"We do selection tests on the dog for four 'drives,' which are their natural instinctive drives," he said. These are the prey, tracking, hunt and scent. The training center looks for dogs that exhibit not only superior drives, but trainable temperaments, he said.
"We don't want an alpha dog," he said. Dogs with an "alpha" temperament are not as accepting of human leadership and therefore harder to train, he explained.
"We look for a dog with stable nerves, dogs who are calm in their work. We don't want anything frantic or challenging of the (human) leadership," Brenneman said.
Nelson, who is also a real estate agent, said his is the first home inspection company in Tennessee to utilize detection dogs, although there are numerous such companies elsewhere in the United States and Europe, he said.
Mattie has already gone out on three jobs; Sky has not completed a professional assignment yet, having just arrived in Franklin last week after Brenneman personally drove her from Kansas City.
Square footage sets cost
Dog Inspectors charges 15 cents per square foot to inspect a home and $20 per room for hotels or university dormitories, which are among the target clients for Sky's bedbug detection skills.
Bedbugs are reportedly making a comeback because of the ban on the pesticide DDT. A flat, dark brown bug, they resemble ticks, and although they get their name from their tendency to live in bedding, they can also be found in carpets, under wallpaper, behind baseboards and in small cracks and crevices throughout a room, according to the National Pest Management Association.
Professional extermination services are typically needed to rid a building of them.
Although they do not carry disease, bedbugs do bite humans to feed off blood.
A person who has been the bedbugs' victim will have swollen spots the next morning, similar to those received from mosquito bites.
Though bedbug infestations occur more commonly in hotels and dormitories, the little bugs can infest a house by traveling home inside the luggage or clothing of a traveler who has spent the night in an infested building.
"They can even travel in your cell phone or laptop computer," Sosa said.
For Sky's daily training exercises, she keeps two small vials of live bedbugs. For Mattie's daily training sessions, Sosa keeps several vials of mold samples and a couple of small boxes containing live termites.
Dog Inspectors sells no repair or remediation services; after the dogs have been taken through a building, the company furnishes clients with a written report showing exactly where the dogs have detected problems.
In the case of a mold finding, Dog Inspectors does provide an air sampling service in which the samples are sent for laboratory testing to receive more information on the type and quantity of mold present.
Otherwise the client can use the dogs' reports to contract for mold removal or pest control services.
To learn more about the service, the company's Web site is doginspectors.com.
For Williamson A.M. • July 11, 2008
FRANKLIN — The newest home inspection service in Williamson County is one that should have no trouble distinguishing itself from the competition. It uses trained dogs to sniff out three different kinds of home problems.
Mattie, a Dutch shepherd, and Sky, a chocolate Labrador retriever, are the star employees of Dog Inspectors LLC.
The pair is specifically trained to detect the presence of 31 different kinds of harmful mold in a home or commercial building, as well as termites and bedbugs.
And the beauty of this concept, owner Chuck Nelson said, is that the dogs don't have to see the problem to uncover it.
"They can smell through the walls," he said. "There's no need to cut into the walls to find the problem."
From rigorous training and their natural ability to smell thousands of times better than humans, the dogs' detection "reports" are "very, very accurate," said handler Diana Sosa, a professional dog trainer with 20 years of experience.
Mattie, who is 14 months old, reports the presence of mold by pointing with her nose, then sitting and looking up at Sosa. She reports termites by scratching at the floor or baseboard. Her reward is a chance to play with a special toy.
Twenty-one-month-old Sky reports the presence of bedbugs by sitting and pointing.
The two dogs were trained for this work at the Iron Heart Training Center in Kansas City, Kan.
Master trainer Tom Brenneman trains canines for professional detection and investigation work, including bombs, arson, narcotics, search and rescue, tracking and general police service as well as personal protection. His client list includes actress Cybill Shepherd and the king of Jordan.
Training took 700 hours
Mattie and Sky completed 600 hours of specialty training and 100 hours of obedience training to earn certification by the World Detector Dog Organization.
To be certified, the dogs and Sosa had to pass an extensive field test with 95 percent accuracy. In addition, the dogs and Sosa will have to be re-certified every 12 months to maintain the designation.
Mattie and Sky were selected not only because of their natural smelling abilities, but also for their superior instincts and temperament, Brenneman said.
"We do selection tests on the dog for four 'drives,' which are their natural instinctive drives," he said. These are the prey, tracking, hunt and scent. The training center looks for dogs that exhibit not only superior drives, but trainable temperaments, he said.
"We don't want an alpha dog," he said. Dogs with an "alpha" temperament are not as accepting of human leadership and therefore harder to train, he explained.
"We look for a dog with stable nerves, dogs who are calm in their work. We don't want anything frantic or challenging of the (human) leadership," Brenneman said.
Nelson, who is also a real estate agent, said his is the first home inspection company in Tennessee to utilize detection dogs, although there are numerous such companies elsewhere in the United States and Europe, he said.
Mattie has already gone out on three jobs; Sky has not completed a professional assignment yet, having just arrived in Franklin last week after Brenneman personally drove her from Kansas City.
Square footage sets cost
Dog Inspectors charges 15 cents per square foot to inspect a home and $20 per room for hotels or university dormitories, which are among the target clients for Sky's bedbug detection skills.
Bedbugs are reportedly making a comeback because of the ban on the pesticide DDT. A flat, dark brown bug, they resemble ticks, and although they get their name from their tendency to live in bedding, they can also be found in carpets, under wallpaper, behind baseboards and in small cracks and crevices throughout a room, according to the National Pest Management Association.
Professional extermination services are typically needed to rid a building of them.
Although they do not carry disease, bedbugs do bite humans to feed off blood.
A person who has been the bedbugs' victim will have swollen spots the next morning, similar to those received from mosquito bites.
Though bedbug infestations occur more commonly in hotels and dormitories, the little bugs can infest a house by traveling home inside the luggage or clothing of a traveler who has spent the night in an infested building.
"They can even travel in your cell phone or laptop computer," Sosa said.
For Sky's daily training exercises, she keeps two small vials of live bedbugs. For Mattie's daily training sessions, Sosa keeps several vials of mold samples and a couple of small boxes containing live termites.
Dog Inspectors sells no repair or remediation services; after the dogs have been taken through a building, the company furnishes clients with a written report showing exactly where the dogs have detected problems.
In the case of a mold finding, Dog Inspectors does provide an air sampling service in which the samples are sent for laboratory testing to receive more information on the type and quantity of mold present.
Otherwise the client can use the dogs' reports to contract for mold removal or pest control services.
To learn more about the service, the company's Web site is doginspectors.com.
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