TETON COUNTY — When most people picture a golden retriever, they probably imagine tennis balls, lake days and endless games of fetch.
But for Avalanche and Chief, two golden retrievers with Teton County Search and Rescue, the job looks a little different.
Brianna Juneau reports - watch the video here:
The dogs work across Teton County, much of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front and sometimes beyond, helping search for human remains as certified human remains detection dogs. Addie Lohman and her husband trained the dogs themselves, earning certification for the pair within the last two years.
For Lohman, one of the most rewarding parts of the work is watching the dogs transform when it is time to search.
“Watching them lock in is probably my favorite part,” Lohman said. “They know when it’s time to work, and they really enjoy it.”
The work can take the team far from home. Deployments regularly involve travel, sometimes crossing state lines to assist agencies and families searching for answers. Lohman said handlers cover those travel expenses themselves and receive no outside funding for deployments.
“We’re always willing to go because if somebody needs help, we want to be there,” she said.
Earlier this year, one of those deployments suddenly felt uncertain. Back in January, Avalanche suffered a life-threatening injury after a stick punctured her thoracic cavity while outside. She was rushed to veterinary specialists in Bozeman, where surgeons repaired a hole in her lungs.
The recovery was long and frightening. Lohman said there was a point where they were unsure whether Avalanche would surviv —and even if she did, whether she would ever be able to work again.
For a detection dog, losing a sense of smell could mean losing the ability to search.
“It was super scary,” Lohman said. “We didn’t know if she’d ever smell again.”
But slowly, Avalanche began responding to scents.
Lohman said retraining started gradually as Avalanche regained her ability to smell, rebuilding confidence and detection skills little by little. That work recently paid off.
Avalanche returned to deployment with the team, traveling to North Dakota, a milestone for a dog once facing an uncertain future.
“She’s strong,” Lohman said. “She has come back stronger than ever with more determination.”
Now, Avalanche and Chief continue training to expand the dogs’ scent recognition library — and the team is asking the public for help.
Lohman said because every person smells different, and even different parts of the human body carry unique scent profiles, the dogs benefit from exposure to a wide range of training materials.
The team is seeking donations of bone fragments for training, including human teeth, surgical bone removals from procedures such as joint replacements, or fatty tissue removed during surgeries.
Those materials help the dogs build a broader “detection library,” strengthening their ability to locate human remains in real-world situations.
For Lohman, the mission comes back to the dogs doing what they love while helping families in difficult moments.
“They love it,” she said. “You can see how happy they are when they get to work.”
