Search and Rescue canines featured on Animal Planet

The Daily Inter Lake

The Flathead County Search and Rescue canine team gets some national exposure this week when it's featured on the Animal Planet television network.

Five area search dogs and a puppy in training will be profiled at 7 p.m. Friday as part of the network's "Ms. Adventure" series. The topic is "Surviving Extremes," area dog handler Kathy Lewis said.

The show will explain how animals adapt to changes in their environments and the challenges to their survival.

A crew from Animal Planet was in the Flathead Valley in September to film the dogs.

Area rescue dogs have been an integral part of two recent extensive search efforts: for 3-year-old Loic Rogers, who was found dead in a septic tank, and for rural Marion resident Elizabeth Dacus, who became lost in thick fog and was found by rescue dog Panzer and dog handler Janet Yatchak.

In addition to Panzer, a male German shepherd, the canine team includes Brenner, a male Belgian Tervurean handled by Kim Gilmore; Choco, a female black Labrador handled by Phil Frey; Breeze, a female Belgian Groenendael handled by Wendy Stefaniak; Rudee, a female chocolate Labrador handled by Yatchak; and puppy-in-training Stryker, a male Belgian Tervurean handled by Lewis.