Amaral and the dogs

[stephen25000]

I assure you quite categorically that I am right ....

Have you handled dogs in the field ?

Or are you still googling as before ?

[ferryman]

Have you handled dogs in the field ?

Or are you still googling as before ?

I've read about them.

And I assimilate the information I read.

Others to contribute to this thread have done the same ...

[stephen25000]

I've read about them.

And I assimilate the information I read.

Others to contribute to this thread have done the same ...

Doesn't make you an expert or qualified in the field, does it ?

So on your logic, if you read up and assimilated information , you could carry out heart surgery

[ferryman]

Doesn't make you an expert or qualified in the field, does it ?

So on your logic, if you read up and assimilated information , you could carry out heart surgery

Just makes me right.

I'll settle for that ...

[stephen25000]

Just makes me right.

I'll settle for that ...

In what way exactly are you right ?

As for settling, by whose standards do you do that ?

To use one of benice's favourtie expressions, is it as an armchairs detective ?

[Benice]

In what way exactly are you right ?

As for settling, by whose standards do you do that ?

To use one of benice's favourtie expressions, is it as an armchairs detective ?

It's your assertion that unless you are a qualified professional your opinions don't count.   So how do you justify your belief  that amateur armchair detectives with no qualifications -  know better than professional police officers?

You can't have it both ways.

[mercury]

I assure you quite categorically that I am right ....

Itsjust a little hard to believe that a  police force was pretending their dogs could follow a persons scent, and asked for their clothing just for effect!

[Benice]

What have the detectives achieved then Benice ?

Besides, you spout your views on here, day after day.

Are you an armchair detective  ?

What happens to people Benice when they do a job and achieve nothing ?

Of course I'm an armchair detective, and it is for that very reason that I do not claim to know better than SY.

What's your reason for thinking that you do know better?

[ferryman]

Itsjust a little hard to believe that a  police force was pretending their dogs could follow a persons scent, and asked for their clothing just for effect!

They didn't pretend anything.

They improvised and hoped.

Their only other option was to give up.

[stephen25000]

Zero results Benice.

and perhaps these detectives should be investigating all the plausible scenarios, and not just one, since the nature of Madeleine's disappearance is actually unknown.

[mercury]

They didn't pretend anything.

They improvised and hoped.

Their only other option was to give up.

And I suppose point 7 here is a lie

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/GNR_SNIFFER.htm

[ferryman]

And I suppose point 7 here is a lie

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/GNR_SNIFFER.htm

Nope!

with the aim of their releasing search and rescue dog teams, seeing as these are specially trained to find missing persons, which is not the case with the Portimao sniffer dogs, which are essentially patrol dogs.

Search and resuce dogs track the generic human scent, not the individual and unique one.

[Brietta]

They didn't pretend anything.

They improvised and hoped.

Their only other option was to give up.

They did the best they could in the circumstances.  Their training was to find people lost outdoors if Madeleine had been outside (woke and wandered theory) there is every likelihood they would have found her.
Particularly when one considers the area of terrain they covered.

They were perfectly correct to improvise and hope and they put their all into finding Madeleine.

I think what you have illustrated in the link you posted Ferryman, is that dogs with particular 'bloodhound' skills are few and far between in Europe.
There are mountain rescue dogs in Scotland as well as police dogs ... yet a specialist team had to be imported from Wales.

Back in 2007 the Portuguese faced similar problems. 

Sometimes the issue with dogs finding nothing is that there is nothing there to be found.

[pathfinder73]

Nope!

with the aim of their releasing search and rescue dog teams, seeing as these are specially trained to find missing persons, which is not the case with the Portimao sniffer dogs, which are essentially patrol dogs.

Search and resuce dogs track the generic human scent, not the individual and unique one.

The dogs were given her pink blanket on the bed. I think that would have her unique scent on.

After the officers had been updated about facts relating to the disappearance, they tried to reconstruct the route the girl might have taken with the two tracker dogs. For this purpose the dogs were given a blanket to sniff, provided by the parents, which had been used by Madeleine.

Beginning to follow the track using Rex, from the door of apartment 5 A (the place where the girl had been sleeping) he would always head in the direction of Block 4, leaving block 5 the dog would turn to the left, pass by a metal access door to a path existing between the apartments blocks to the leisure area (restaurant, pool and playground). Immediately another attempt at reconstruction was made using the dog Zarus, who, in general terms, ended up following the same route as Rex and having the same behaviour.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/GNR_SNIFFER.htm

They arrived at the apartment around 5:40PM, earlier than usual, because Madeleine was tired, their other friends were at the beach and Gerry had an all-male tennis game at 6:00PM. They entered the apartment by the main door, with the key.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/KATE-MCCANN_ARGUIDO.htm

[Brietta]

The dogs were given her pink blanket on the bed. I think that would have her unique scent on.

After the officers had been updated about facts relating to the disappearance, they tried to reconstruct the route the girl might have taken with the two tracker dogs. For this purpose the dogs were given a blanket to sniff, provided by the parents, which had been used by Madeleine.

Beginning to follow the track using Rex, from the door of apartment 5 A (the place where the girl had been sleeping) he would always head in the direction of Block 4, leaving block 5 the dog would turn to the left, pass by a metal access door to a path existing between the apartments blocks to the leisure area (restaurant, pool and playground). Immediately another attempt at reconstruction was made using the dog Zarus, who, in general terms, ended up following the same route as Rex and having the same behaviour.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/GNR_SNIFFER.htm

They arrived at the apartment around 5:40PM, earlier than usual, because Madeleine was tired, their other friends were at the beach and Gerry had an all-male tennis game at 6:00PM. They entered the apartment by the main door, with the key.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/KATE-MCCANN_ARGUIDO.htm

Pathfinder ... there are screeds of information and discussions out there about specialist dogs trained to search out an individual by scent.

A lot of it originates in America where I think bloodhounds are the animal of choice.  I believe Germany is another centre of excellence.

We only have them in Wales (see the link provided by Ferryman) ... and in 2007 the Portuguese had none.

No-one can state what it was that the Portuguese dogs followed ... but the chance of it being Madeleine's unique scent are so slim I believe it may be non-existent.