Since the night Michael Joseph Vaugh went missing, several search methods have been utilized to find the little boy, including the use of canines.

The Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue unit (IMSARU) has been searching for five-year-old Michael Vaughan. Last week, they were deployed along with a canine to search an area on the Oregon side of the Snake River.

Since the start of the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue unit, search dogs have been a crucial part of searching for missing people or lost children.

According to the IMSARU, canines can smell up to 10,000 times better than humans, which is extremely helpful in looking for missing people in hard places to reach or see.

"They have those special gifts at being able to detect sense in a particular direction as well as beyond what a human searcher would be able to detect, and that becomes really important when we are trying to focus our search efforts in a very specific and narrow area when time may be a sensitive issue," said Scotty Perkins, IMSARU public relations director.

Several law enforcement agencies continue to search for the little boy throughout the week and ask community members to remain vigilant.