Detective Harley, F.A.D.D. (Food Allergen Detection Dog)
My daughter wasn’t diagnosed with her peanut allergy until she was 4 years old. She was what one would call a picky eater and we were not peanut butter eaters, so we got lucky that she wasn’t exposed before that time. Then one day, tired of making turkey sandwiches for my picky eater, I decided to make her a good old PB&J. As I was slathering the peanut butter on the bread I had a thought, “She should taste it first…just in case.” I put a teeny amount on a spoon and low and behold, her ears, within just seconds, got bright red and she started shaking her head because they itched. I had nothing in the house to help her – nobody in our family has food allergies. My mom was with me and while I called the pediatrician, she ran out to get some Benadryl. How clueless we were! Long story short, we got lucky. The reaction didn’t go beyond her ears and an itchy throat, we gave her the Benadryl, and we found ourselves in the allergist’s office the very next week. She came out a 4+ (which is the highest on his scale) and the welt on her back took 6 weeks to completely go down. I had read about allergen alert service dogs and thought that would be great for her because she was so shy and wouldn’t speak up for herself, but people thought I was being ridiculous so we just pressed on with our new diagnosis.
From that point forward, we were vigilant, but not alarmists. While I was alarmed on the inside, I couldn’t let her know because I didn’t want to transfer my own anxieties to her. And we were fine – I sent safe snacks, called ahead, did my due diligence, and always made sure she had her epinephrine and the person who was with her (it was mostly me) knew how to use it.
Then, at the end of 2016, I saw the Debbs on The Today Show. I remember telling everyone in our family about it - it was so upsetting. But I never spoke a word about it to my daughter and when we spoke about her peanut allergy, I never used any words to imply that she could die from it.
Only a few short months later in the spring of 2017, we had a bullying incident at school. I found out my daughter was eating lunch alone on the steps because a girl was bringing peanut butter to school and told my daughter that she would pay for my daughter to go to the hospital if she got sick. The school enforced peanut-free classrooms if there was an allergic student, so when the teachers found out the girl was bringing peanut-butter, they took the sandwich away and let her know that she could no longer bring it to school. The very next day, afraid, my daughter asked her, “Do you have peanut butter for lunch?” and the girl responded, “No. And if you ask me again I’m going to bring a spoonful to school and shove it in your mouth.” This was a second grader who basically just made the equivalent threat of bringing a loaded gun to school to shoot her. I remember my daughter telling me that night. She was in tears and shaking and looked at me and said, “But Mom, I could die.”
I emailed the administration that night and I went to school the next day and discussed it with them. I was told that since I knew the mother, I should work it out with her. I loved the school and the people and administration there, but I was already feeling that it wasn’t the right place for her and this was the last straw. We switched schools for the next fall. And no, I never spoke to the mother about it.
Needless to say, her level of anxiety over her peanut allergy skyrocketed from that bullying incident. Eating out (which was already challenging) was infinitely more difficult and the thought of putting your life in the hands of servers and restaurant kitchens was just too much. In the spring of 2018, I revisited my allergen alert service dog idea, did more research, and found a trainer with great references, and proceeded to move forward.
A quick side-note on allergen alert service dogs: It would be irresponsible of me to recommend one for every person with food allergies. They are not necessarily a fit for everyone’s condition and lifestyle. While Harley’s alert task is life-saving in preventing an anaphylactic reaction, she is a dog and requires all the care that any pet dog requires, and then some. And every time we go out, I have extra gear and I have to think ahead on the outing – it’s a bit like always having a toddler (albeit a well-behaved one that doesn’t throw tantrums).
Our first dog “candidate,” born in May of 2018, was named Phoebe because we already had Joey and who doesn’t love FRIENDS??? Unfortunately, Phoebe wasn’t into detection work so she is living the life of a well-loved pet with our dear friends. A few months later, Harley was born. She was tested by the trainer and breeder and chosen for the job. She started her training at the end of 2018 and finally came home to us in November of 2019.
Another side note: Joey’s collar was blue, so I just figured Harley’s should be red. And of course, her vest and shoes needed to match. Little did I know it would end up being such a great fit for helping to spread food allergy awareness with Red Sneakers for Oakley!
We took the next 3 months transferring over the handler role and getting used to each and we were doing great. We were on a roll and then, about 2 weeks later, COVID hit and all of our final public access work was put to a halt and we were stuck at home. I had put all this time and energy into getting this dog trained for almost 2 years to improve our lives outside of the house, and now we were stuck in the house.
As everyone knows, having your kids home in quarantine is not conducive to getting much done. I had started an Instagram account for Harley but hadn’t done much with it at that point. However, I still had to work her and keep her skills up at home. We brought in a lot of take-out during quarantine – helping our local businesses (and tired of cooking) – so Harley got a lot of good work there. I started videoing and posting little by little and was getting positive feedback.
So, when the kids finally went back to school with a consistent schedule in the fall of 2021, I decided to go all-in on Harley’s Instagram account (@peanutfreewithharley) because I was coming to the realization that Harley’s nose shows what people can’t see or don’t necessarily believe – it’s an eye-opening way to educate people on food allergies.
A few months in, a couple of reels started getting a lot of activity. I was getting a lot of very positive feedback and some very negative feedback. The negative feedback was from adults saying things like “food allergies weed out the weak” and “eat the peanut – it’s natural selection.” There were enough comments that I realized there are a lot of people teaching young kids to have the same attitude. And given that there were so many positive responses to Harley and most kids love dogs, I came up with the idea of Detective Harley, F.A.D.D. (Food Allergen Detection Dog) to be the International Spokesdog for the Food Allergy Community. Detective Harley is out to change the narrative on food allergies by educating, empowering, and encouraging empathy in kids 3-8 years old. The idea behind @detectiveharleyfadd is that if we teach all kids – food allergy and non-food allergy kids – when they are young, we can grow a more empathetic, understanding, and accepting attitude towards food allergies that will make it easier to manage them out in the world. The world will never be free of allergens and we need to accept that and be able to function within it. But there is no excuse for food allergies to not be taken seriously and to not be accepted as the life-threatening medical condition that they are. My hope is that Harley – Detective Harley, F.A.D.D. – can change that for our kids and for generations of kids to come.
