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.
I think you have all probably read about the initial dogs who were brought in, but just in case....
Processos Vol V
Pages 1335 – 1337
Witness Statement
Date: 2007-05-16
Carlos Manuel Carvalho Lacao
Occupation: GNR Officer
He has been a GNR officer since 1988. He holds the post of soldier and currently works in the Portimao Territorial Group, working within the forensics service.
On 4th May he was called at about 01.15 when he was asleep at home, requesting him to appear at the Lagos GNR post as a small girl had disappeared. After arriving at the GNR post with his colleagues Morais and two dogs (Numi and Kit), German Shepherd dogs, which made up the search team, they immediately left for P da L. They arrived at about 02.30.
When they arrived at the scene, they entered the McCann’s apartment by the front door, and entered the living room, where there were some PJ officers as well as the MCCann couple. The just talked to some colleagues from the PJ and asked for a piece of clothing that Madeleine had worn or used recently. They were given a pink/orange blanket that the child had been covered with in her bed.
They began searching with the dogs from the main entrance to the apartment, having given the blanket to his dog Numi to smell and begin to search.
The route initially taken was from the front entrance door to the passageway between Blocks 4 and 5, along the corridor and then along the passage that leads past the entrance to the small reception to the resort’s swimming pool. After that the whole of the area surrounding the resort was searched.
With regard to the indications transmitted by his dog Numi, he says that at the beginning he was only “a little interested”, he let the dog "get on with it" .
They finished the searches at about 07.00 AM.
His dog’s speciality is patrolling (Maintenance of Public Order) although the dog also has some training in “tracking”.
When they entered the apartment they did not speak to anyone, not wanting to get in the way of other GNR officers present. During the searches they only spoke to the sergeant, from the Lagos GNR post, with a GNR officer and with a security guard who was present, he does not remember what company he was from. The conversation was about whether they had found anything.
He remembers that during a brief rest period at about 04.00, Madeleine’s mother asked whether there was any news and whether the roads had been blocked off.
There were some unknown people helping in the searches, especially when they arrived at the resort. Their number decreased as it got later. Between 04.00 and 07.00 basically the only people searching were the witness, his colleague and another GNR officer.
During this night as well as the following night, when he repeated the searches from 23.00 to 08.00 he did not see anyone suspicious.
He did not see Robert Murat on either of the nights.
He did not search inside the apartment, just the verandas and surrounding areas.
No more is said. Reads, ratifies, signs.
http://themaddiecasefiles.com/post353.html#p353
