Well I am thinking then the 2nd day after the 911 call. Of course the dogs would have tracked decomposition which was just down the street.
After the fact we know they would never have found a live Caylee with a piece of clothing or a stuffed animal. They did have the decomp smell to work with. I know it is hard for LE to do their job when the family is accusing
them of jumping to conclusions on T.V. but I bet many now will just ignore families like this and search in the direction they feel the info leads them and in this situation decomp was the lead of the day.
Poor Caylee what a family she was stuck with.
On July 17th, Gerus alerted to the trunk of the Pontiac, and also alerted to a spot near Caylee's playhouse in the Anthony's backyard. Bones another cadaver dog, also alerted near Caylee's playhouse. The following day neither dog alerted near the playhouse, nor anywhere else in the backyard.
The second day, which would have been July 18th, and this of course, is a coulda, shoulda, woulda, type thing, had they walked these two dogs around the corner to the wooded area, and simply walked the woodline, which would have been the most logical place to start a search, this was before Tropical Storm Faye, and just over 4 weeks since Caylee went missing. Walking the woodline, with the remains 10 feet or less from that woodline, there would have been a very strong possibility of one of the two dogs alerting.
Since the dogs alerted in the backyard, and since Gerus alerted on the trunk, LE had to then be strongly considering the possibility that Caylee was already dead. LE also knew at this point that the leads to ZFG and Sawgrass Apartment were false. I realize they were following leads KC had given them, however, LE usually follows leads they discover independently of what witnesses tell them. For instance, the cadaver dogs alerting in the backyard. Since, historically, many missing and deceased children are found in wooded areas near the home, logically, it would seem that they would have independantly searched the wooded area less than a quarter of mile from the Anthony home, regardless of what KC and the Anthony's had told them, because usually, LE is very thorough. It really is too bad that this did not happen, and that Gerus or Bones did not find Caylee's remains on July 18th, because the verdict may have yielded a different result if they had.
As always, my entire post is my opinion only.