4 months ago
TURNER (NEWS CENTER) -- A 5 year old boy who is deathly allergic to peanuts and his family have a new tool in their struggle to keep him safe from harm. Nicco is an eighteen month old Portuguese Water Dog - the breed made famous by the adoption of one by President Obama's family. But Nicco is special - his keen sense of smell and months of training have made him into a peanut detecting machine.
"We have brought him over to family's houses and he just automatically just starts checking, because it is a new place, and he just starts checking to make sure everything is ok," said Jessie Rines, who's son Ethan has severe allergies to nuts. "Dogs are not 100%. Nor is a human. He is just a tool to help us. We still have to read labels. We still have to do our own checks. We still have to wipe down things before Ethan sits down. He is just there to ensure us that we have done the right thing."
Jessie and her family worked through the summer to raise awareness about people who have serious nut allergies and to raise the $15,000 to pay for Nicco, his training and travel expenses. A couple weeks ago, they flew out to Colorado to meet him for the first time and work with him before bringing him home.
"I thought he was cute," said Ethan. "He is going to detect peanuts. You can't pet him too much and you can only pet him when he is done working."
Ethan has been unable to do many things kids his age enjoy because of his allergies. He has never slept over at another friend's house, or even visited, because his allergies are so severe. He has not been able to go to school since the beginning of September because the risk is just too high.
"In his first week at school he had three reactions, the last resulting in us having to call 9-1-1, being brought to the emergency room with him on oxygen," said Jessie. She hopes to have Ethan and Nicco trained well enough to allow Ethan to return to school by Thanksgiving.
Nicco is trained to detect peanuts like other dogs are trained to sniff out drugs or explosives. "Right when he gets an odor you can tell, he starts sniffing a lot and then he sits down and he get's his reward and he is happy and we are happy," said Jessie. While she understands that peanuts will always pose a threat to Ethan, her hope is with an extra set of eyes, and one extremely sensitive sniffer, Ethan can enjoy doing more without the worry of wondering if everything he touches is contaminated with peanuts.
If you would like more information about allergy dogs, you can go to the Angel Service Dogs website by clicking here.
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