A dispatcher alerts St. Paul police to a car just stolen with a young girl inside. Officer Brady Harrison and his K-9 partner, Sully, both react.

"Oh, my God," Harrison says. He activates his emergency lights and sirens.

Excited, Sully starts whining and is "ready for action," says the narrator of a new Animal Planet show, "K9 Cops," that features the St. Paul police K-9 unit and premieres tonight at 9.

Animal Planet "discovered" the St. Paul K-9 unit several years ago when a production company was filming the unit and others at a national K-9 championship. A documentary aired on Animal Planet in 2004.

"It was very clear that the St. Paul police K-9 unit was one of the most elite in the country," said Erin Wanner, an Animal Planet executive producer.

The cable network has had success with a show called "Animal Cops," which follows officers helping abused or mistreated animals, but didn't have a show about police dogs, Wanner said. Now, Granada Anglia, which worked on the documentary, is producing "K9 Cops" for Animal Planet.

"It's such a unique job for dogs to help protect civilians and officers and arrest dangerous suspects, we knew there would be lots of great stories to tell," Wanner said.

All 15 episodes feature St. Paul's K-9s and their human partners. If the show does well, more episodes might follow, and the show could branch off to other cities, Wanner said.

Though the K-9 unit does many public demonstrations each year, "people don't

really get to actually see ... the value of the dogs on the street," said Sgt. Paul Dunnom, who heads St. Paul's K-9 unit.

"The show is a great opportunity for us to showcase what we believe is a tremendous unit, what we do and what K-9s around the whole country, around the world, do on a daily basis," he said.

Three camera and audio crews started shooting in May, and they'll be in town through at least November, Wanner said. Because the officers have shifts around the clock, Animal Planet wanted to have crews riding along with the officers at all hours of the day and night, Wanner said.

The case of the vehicle stolen with the 5-year-old girl inside occurred May 30. The girl was sleeping in her father's truck when he went into the Liquor Barrel on West Seventh Street.

The girl screamed, and the men threw her into a yard a few miles away. Two men were convicted in the case.

"K9 Cops" shows Sully tracking one of the suspects but losing his scent at a house. Later, Harrison and Sully join a SWAT team, and a man is found at a house nearby.

"It just kind of reaffirms that the dog was right on him the whole time," Harrison says on the first episode. "That night, Sully did a great job."

The other officers and K-9s featured in the first episode are officer Jeremy Ryan and Ranger; officer Nicole Rasmussen, currently the only female of the department's 22 K-9 handlers, and Chase; and officer Bob Edwards and Rico, who was shot last October while chasing a suspect but is back to work. Different officers will be featured in upcoming episodes.

The first episode includes vehicle chases and fleeing suspects, a drug search and a report of a suicidal teenager with a gun. It's not all dramatic — some footage shows the officers and K-9s at home.

Dunnom said he hopes the show will correct some public misconceptions, including that K-9s are vicious dogs.

"In reality, they're highly trained dogs," he said. "When they're not working, they're like many other dogs in that they go home and relax and live a dog's life."

The officers were mostly excited about the show, Dunnom said. Some were a little camera-shy at first, but they've become more comfortable over the months, he said.

The show carries a warning: "Due to the graphic nature of this program viewer discretion is advised."

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.