I've heard that there is approximately a 4-hour window of opportunity for a tracking dog to find the scent and follow it from the point of disappearance. And even that depends on weather. The kid disappeared during the night, and I didn't see anything that indicated how much time elapsed between him leaving and anyone discovering it, and then how long the family searched before they called for help, and then how long it took for the search to get organized.

From what I've read, most searches NEVER call the dogs in first. They have a bunch of people trampling the area first, and let a lot of time go by, and then finally someone says, "Why don't we get a dog team in here?"

Scent-trained dogs probably find a lot of the victims by picking up their scent when they cross it during a more random search.

Those were pretty small pups, maybe large Beagles or Foxhounds. Considering the story, I was expecting a couple of large hound pups or something.

Lucky.

Sue