SHE TRAINED HER DOG TO FIND WHAT DOCTORS COULDN'T

SPEAKER_01 0:00

My doctors are telling me I'm crazy. We'll come in and we'll find it. Sometimes a little bit of mold can take a person out.

Dr Pompa 0:09

The level of sensitivity is everything. Only the dog would find these things. A lot of people are advertising mold dogs, but they're not certified. Gus was trained by the number one mold trainer in the world. I can't tell you how many homes we tested for people who were sick, and the homes tested fine with all the sophisticated mold testing available. And then we bring a mold dog in. And what do we find? Yeah, typically the problem. Well, guess what? We brought in Stacy from Moldpups. Hi. Moldpups.com. And she travels too, but you brought your dog in, and we found some things in this home. This is a new home, a two-year-old home. Okay, wouldn't have expected any problems. And by the way, every test that we've done in this home, because before I even bought it, I ran a bunch of tests. They came out spot on.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

And that's pretty normal. Air tests, you're only getting a very small window of your home at that time. And you're running it for five seconds. The air conditioning could could affect it. There's so many different things. And I hear all the time you're not the first person. The air sample came back clear. But I'm I know there's something here.

Dr Pompa 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

And my doctors are telling me I'm crazy. We'll come in and we'll find it. Okay.

Dr Pompa 1:35

We'll know that. And Gus did. Gus found. Okay. First of all, this is an imposter. This is not Gus. This is dog, my dog Yankee, who wants to be a mold dog, I think, because he's been following around the house.

Why Certification And Training Matter

SPEAKER_01 1:47

He loves me and wants to be a mold dog.

Dr Pompa 1:49

So I think he has aspirations to be a mold dog.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Hey, if you want me to take him home, I will. We'll work on him.

Dr Pompa 1:54

You know, first of all, I want to be clear on that joking note. A lot of people are advertising mold dogs, but they're not certified. Gus was trained by the number one mold trainer in the world. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

So Bill Whitstein, who is I he started it 30 years ago with the military and has been a complete boss in the space. Yeah. Honestly, I've I've heard other trainers calling him trying to figure out what what his secret sauce is. Yeah. Um, and so Gus has been trained on 18 types of mold that's in the house making you sick. The wet and the dry molds. He's been trained on both. So he's not hitting on the mold. He's hitting on the MVOCs, the microbial, volatile, organic MVOCs, um, compound. So when he's smelling, he's not smelling the mycotoxins, he's smelling those MVOCs.

Dr Pompa 2:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

And when he sits, he's telling me it's right here.

Dr Pompa 2:46

I I watch that. We'll we'll put some video in here because you know, watching him and they may be putting the video, watching him go around was remarkable.

Hidden Mold In A New Home

Dr Pompa 2:55

The level of sensitivity stunned me. So we get some condensation when it gets really cold here on the windows, which many uh uh that happens in Utah when it's really cold in the mountains. Um moisture, it dries up uh in a few hours. But that moisture it it still causes some level of mycotoxin. Yeah. Dust was around those windows. I mean, he found it.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

I mean, he did he was marking it pretty good.

Dr Pompa 3:22

He was marking that's what we say, he's marking it. But we found, and you know, again, that probably wasn't an area of like major contamination, but he did find something that I had suspicion about. He found he marked an area in our shower that is also a steam room. And what I had noticed was is that where the steam comes out, it wasn't sealed correctly. Right. And I realized, oh my gosh, water even from the shower could have actually been getting down in there. So I dried it, you know, thinking maybe it was in there, then I sealed it. Okay. But Gus marked it.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

He marked it pretty good.

Dr Pompa 3:59

Yeah, he marked it pretty good. And you said that was a concern because you're like, he he didn't just mark it like he kind of did the window condensation. He he sat there.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

He sat hard and he nosed it pretty hard. So I knew that there was going to be something there. And then when we pulled back the the cover to get in there and kind of look around, we found it.

Dr Pompa 4:17

Well, then we but put a camera behind it, went where we can't see with the camera, and lo and behold, there was uh some black mold in there.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah, it was definitely there. So the boroscope, I mean, you're not having to mess up too many things, but you're able to get in there and see what's going on, and that

What Gus Found In Another House

SPEAKER_01 4:34

uh confirms Gus a lot of time.

Dr Pompa 4:36

In what my son's house, you did my son's house, right? So a four-year-old home. You brought Gus in this home. By the way, two times it was tested with dust testing, ermie testing, and other air tests, tested okay. What did Gus find in my son's house?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

He found he marked all over your son's house. Um the windows had failed. There were um issues with the uh fireplace, the chimney. Um, and when we would pull that back, uh the remediators would go deeper. Uh so a lot of times with Gus, I bring in and you have to bring in an IEP, and they will confirm him. They're going in, they're looking, they're pulling back those windows, and they're seeing a lot of air gaps, a lot of airflows coming in through those windows.

Dr Pompa 5:22

Because they weren't sealed properly. They weren't sealed properly. So we have condensation. There he he lives in near Nashville, hot, cold, con it moisture.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Moisture, just moisture.

Dr Pompa 5:32

So it wasn't like they leaked necessarily. They were creating condensation, which is moisture. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

And another area we found where um his shower, um, there was a scholuter system in there, but the grout had failed and there was water underneath and there was mold growing. Gus marked it.

Dr Pompa 5:48

Uh Jonathan with JF Healthy Homes and uh And by the way, we're gonna talk to Jonathan next

Pairing The Dog With A Building Pro

Dr Pompa 5:55

because bringing a mold dog in with a building biologist is the way to go. Right. Meaning I I wouldn't have been able to like, okay, there might be a problem in the shower, but having the building biologist follow right up.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

That's what so the mold dog is not the end-all be-all. Right. It is the mold dog could be a problem here. Yes. The mold dog and the handler, and then you bring in someone that is investigating and you're looking for it. It's it's a really good combination. But it's not just you can't just have the mold dog. You've got to have the people that are gonna come in and look behind you.

Dr Pompa 6:24

And Jonathan, who we're gonna talk to next, he he travels with you a lot on these cases, right? And um he also found something else. Wait till you hear this. But um, so that that combination is the key. You don't just want a dog, it has to be the right dog. And then with the building biologist who knows where to look, because then they're able to look and say, okay, you know, here's some of the suspicious areas and are they a problem or not?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Building biologists will go in and they just dig deeper, and it's fascinating what they can find. Yeah. And so working with him uh has been a really good, um, a really good thing for us.

Dr Pompa 6:58

Yeah. So I think one of the things I learned with Gus was first of all, like

Sensitivity Changes What “Safe” Means

Dr Pompa 7:05

even like the windows condensating. I mean, if if there's moisture, there's mold. But the question is, is it a level of mold that is a problem for a human? That's the question.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Now I'm gonna ask you, how sensitive are you to mold?

Dr Pompa 7:19

I'm very sensitive.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Then I'm gonna say you're probably gonna want to take care of it. Yeah. Um so just a little bit of mold sometimes is not gonna affect hardly anybody. Sometimes a little bit of mold can take a person out. So it just depends on how sensitive you are. Yeah. Now, a lot of the time with some of the things I'm gonna tell you to keep an eye on. I'm not gonna tell you to the moisture meter, thermal imaging, and boroscope didn't show anything. Gus marked it and he is sensitive, so I'm gonna tell you to keep an eye on it. If you start seeing warping or discoloration, that's a problem.

Dr Pompa 7:47

Yeah, that that steps over the line. And like my windows were constant, but it wasn't getting into the wood behind it or anything, which is another level of of problem. But but the level of sensitivity is everything. And I I've only the dog would find these things.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I I've learned only the dog.

Dr Pompa 8:05

Yeah. Um I'm done with the other testing.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I kind of agree. Like the the air testing.

Dr Pompa 8:12

Yeah, I'm done. Done.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

But yeah.

Dr Pompa 8:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Mold dog is kind of where it's at. I mean, they're these

Where To Find Moldpups

SPEAKER_01 8:18

dogs are just are sensitive and they they're gonna find the mold if they're doing right.

Dr Pompa 8:21

You and Jonathan travel oftentimes. Tell them where to find your uh Gus.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

You can find me on moldpups.com. Tell them mold pups on Instagram, you can find me on Facebook, just mold pups. We're there.

Dr Pompa 8:32

So Yeah, Gus is amazing, by the way. Okay, so love Gus, love you. Yep, thank you. Wait till you hear what the building biologists found. It's not what you think.