What Does an Alert Mean?
Mold gives off scent compounds as it grows. A trained detection dog, or mold sniffing dog as plenty of people call them, picks those up at levels no handheld meter can read, through drywall, under flooring, and around ductwork. An alert means one thing: the dog detected mold odor at that spot. The alert turns "something smells off in this house" into "look at this wall."
What a Sweep Is Not
We are a detection service, and we stay in that lane on purpose. A sweep doesn't determine whether mold is definitely present, what species it might be, how far it extends, or whether you need remediation. Florida licenses mold assessors to answer those questions with testing. If you want that certainty, hire a licensed mold assessor. What the sweep changes is the order: run the sweep first at a lower cost, then pay for assessment only at the spots where the dog alerted.
How Should I Get Ready for the Visit?
Not much is needed. Keep your own pets crated or outside while the dog works, because another animal in the room distracts a working dog. If you know the trouble spots, the smells, or the history of leaks, tell us before we start. And don't air the house out that morning. A closed-up house holds the odor, and the odor is what the dog reads.