As seen on 7NEWS Sydney
Some mould hides where inspectors can't look. A trained dog can smell it out.
Meet the detection dogs featured on 7NEWS Sydney, trained to pinpoint hidden mould behind walls and under floors, without pulling your home apart to find it.
As seen on 7NEWS Sydney
Some mould hides where inspectors can't look. A trained dog can smell it out.
Meet the detection dogs featured on 7NEWS Sydney, trained to pinpoint hidden mould behind walls and under floors, without pulling your home apart to find it.
The story behind it
It started with one mum and one sick kid
It began when Tracey Seymour’s son kept falling ill at home, then got better every time he was away from it. The cause was mould hidden inside the house, the kind that doesn’t show up on a normal walk-through or a couple of test points.
So Tracey trained as a certified mould testing technician and brought in detection dogs to find what people and standard tests keep missing. What began as one family’s problem now helps homes right across Sydney.
The mould you can’t see is the one that quietly makes a home unwell.
How the dog actually does it
A nose that reads what no machine can
Mould gives off a faint, musty smell long before there’s anything to see. A trained detection dog is built to catch exactly that, and to show you where it’s coming from.
🐶
A nose in a different league
🧬
It follows the mould's scent
Hidden mould releases faint musty compounds, known as microbial VOCs, that drift out through walls and floors. The dog is trained to lock onto that exact signature.
🎯
A clear, trained alert
A nose in a different league
Beyond air tests and guesswork
Traditional mould testing can tell you that mould is present. It struggles to tell you where it’s hiding. That’s the gap a detection dog closes.
The usual way
Air tests and visual checks
✕ Air and swab samples show mould is around, but not the source.
✕ Visual and moisture checks only reach what’s accessible.
✕ Mould behind walls or under floors gets missed.
✕ Often means cutting into surfaces just to go looking.
The usual way
Air tests and visual checks
✓ Pinpoints the actual source, not just “mould somewhere”.
✓ Finds it behind walls and under floors, out of reach.
✓ Non-invasive, nothing gets torn open to search.
✓ Fast, usually done in an hour or two.
How a mould dog inspection works
Four steps, and not a single wall torn open
Sniff it out
The dog works through the property room by room, following scent instead of guesswork.
Pinpoint the source
A trained alert marks the exact hidden spots, even behind walls and under floors.
Confirm the find
We check the alert and map the affected area, so nothing is left to chance.
Clear report
You get findings, photos and plain-English next steps you can act on.
The best part:
No cutting into walls or lifting floors just to work out where the problem starts. The dog does that part.
The service behind it
Meet Mould Dogs Australia
Mould Dogs Australia put trained scent dogs to work finding hidden mould in Sydney homes. After featuring on 7NEWS Sydney, it’s become one of the most talked-about new approaches to household mould, and every inspection is run by handlers who know both the dogs and what mould does to a home.
Lead detection dog
K9 Ivan
The black lab 7NEWS filmed. Trained to ignore food, toys and every other distraction, and lock onto one thing: the smell mould gives off, even when there’s nothing to see.
Detection dog
K9 Buck
The second nose on the team. Same training, same job, so more ground gets covered and nothing hidden slips through.