Should we be going to the dogs for gluten detection? Gluten-detecting service dogs have recently gained interest and followers on social media. Enough so that the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease felt a need to post a Statement on the Effectiveness of Gluten Detection Dogs for Patients with Celiac Disease earlier this year.
The idea is great! It could feel so carefree to walk into a restaurant or party and not have to ask any questions or read any labels! We might even feel like regular people again rather than gluten sleuths. And if you already love dogs, I mean, what’s the downside?
But maybe we should ask a few questions before we all start going to the dogs:
How are dogs trained to detect gluten?
Nosey Dog Detection Partners trains dogs to alert to scent. Here’s the standard described on their website.
“Allergen and gluten detection service dogs will be trained to the following standards:
The dog will be tested on 10 items: 5 will be non-scent and 5 will contain the scent the dog is trained to detect. Of those 5 scent items 1 will be a strong source, 1 will be a mid-level source, 1 will be trace source, and 1 will be an item that is typically safe but is contaminated with the scent source.
The dog and handler team will be required to pass this test prior to certification. This will be a blind test for the handler, meaning that the handler will not know which items are source and which are not.
The dog and handler team will be tested both in our training facility and in a public venue. This is to ensure the dog and handler team can work in any environment. We will use our own scent items to ensure that we know for certain which items the dog should be alerting on. We will not pull items from the shelf in the grocery store. It is too difficult to know if the package has been contaminated or if the glue or packaging contains the scent.“
I appreciate the detailed description, but I’m left with a couple of questions:
What scents are they learning to detect? Gluten is odorless. If the dog is taught to alert on wheat, rye, barley, oats, and malt, it would identify many problem foods. But would it detect gluten in caramel color, glucose syrup, or edible coatings? Would it flag oats that were certified gluten-free? And what happens when scents are mixed?
How can we know whether the training is effective? No testing is done in real world conditions using common food items. If “it is too difficult to know if the package has been contaminated” in a test, then it’s going to be too difficult to sort out when I take the dog somewhere IRL. This could be enough to nullify any potential effectiveness. In fact, it feels like it would make my life more confusing, not less.
Are all detection dogs trained using a common standardized criterion? Reading through the American Kennel Club information on service dogs, I’m not sure whether gluten detection really falls under service dog criteria. It’s not really a medical alert dog in the traditional sense. The more accurate parallel may be drug detection dogs.
Would handler bias enter the picture? Research has shown that drug sniffing dogs may alert in error when the handler believes drugs are present. Stands to reason this might be a problem for gluten detection dogs as well.
Willow Service Dogs L.L.C. offers testing in which the controls are blinded or masked to the handler until after the dog is presented with the control and indicates the presence of gluten or gives and all-clear. This would help minimize handler bias.
This company also offers a wider range of testing in more realistic conditions. Still, a false alert is considered acceptable. And the searches are scent based bringing me back to my previous questions.
Is there anything wrong with getting a gluten detection dog? No. We all use a variety of tools to identify problem foods. Adding another tool is fine as long as you understand its limits and are willing to pay the estimated $20,000 to purchase a fully trained dog or put in 1000s of hours to train one on your own.
Because I believe it is vitally important to my health to remain gluten-free, I do not feel comfortable solely relying on a gluten detection dog to keep me safe. There are just too many remaining questions about standards and efficacy.
For now, I won’t be going to the dogs!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”