

Jordan
MOORE
Certified Fitness Trainer & Personal Coach
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Helping people with food allergies navigate
grocery stores, restaurants, and food allergy life
one whiff at a time.
Harley is a Golden Retriever allergen alert service dog trained to detect peanuts. The decision to get Harley was solidified after a bullying incident that took our vigilant-but-not-alarmist outlook over my daughter's peanut allergy to a new level that put the life-threatening reality of anaphylaxis at the forefront of everything. Trained by Kathy Watters of Nosey Dog Detection Partners, Harley has an important job in our every day life by providing another layer of protection, making life outside of the house safer.
Meet
Harley


Why trust a dog?
A dog’s sense of smell is estimated to be 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than that of a human. They can have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses while humans only have about 6 million. In other words, for every scent receptor a human has, a dog can have about 50. Their noses can be powerful enough to detect substances at concentrations of one part per trillion, which is a single drop of liquid in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. (Source: Phoenix Veterinary Center) According to The American Kennel Club, the portion of the dogs brain dedicated to smelling is 40 times greater than that of humans. In fact, one-eighth of a dog’s brain is dedicated to odor detection, which is bigger than the section of the human brain that is dedicated to interpreting sight.
In addition to their sense of smell being stronger than our sense of sight, our noses also function very differently. The dog’s nasal cavity is divided into two separate chambers and opens into two nostrils that actually wiggle independently and take in smells individually. When the dog sniffs, particles and compounds are trapped in the nasal cavity by mucus and the moist exterior of the nose. In the nasal cavity, scent receptors process them. Some of this inhaled air goes to olfactory analysis and some of it goes to the lungs to breathe. (Source: The Farmer’s Dog Digest)


What does this mean
and how does it help you?
This means that detection dogs can be trained for different purposes, including sniffing out drugs, explosives, electronics, wildlife, missing people, changes in blood sugar, and yes, allergens. The ability to take in smells individually is key for allergen detection work. A clear example is a chocolate chip cookie:
While we may smell a chocolate chip cookie in its entirety, a dog smells the flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla extract and every other ingredient individually. So if a dog is trained to alert to one of those ingredients, or better yet, an ingredient that accidentally contaminated the baking process, such as traces of peanuts, the dog will alert. This is exactly how Harley keeps her peanut-allergic human safe, and how, through our Instagram account and website membership, we can help you navigate food allergy life.