An expert has claimed that Nicola Bulley's dog could be vital in helping to trace the missing woman.
The 45-year-old mum vanished on January 27 after dropping off her two daughters at school in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, reports the Mirror.
Police immediately launched a search operation but so far there have been no sightings.
Her phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead, with the dog harness on the ground. Officers believe that Nicola fell into the river, but since there is nothing to confirm this theory so far, they said they remain open-minded.
One expert, Colin Tennant, director of the Cambridge Institute of Dog Behaviour and Training, said the missing mum's pet could hold the key to solving the case.
Colin says that dogs often return to the last spot where they were with their owner due to their strong sense of smell.
The expert said that if a person falls in a river, the dog tends to pick up their owners scent and circulate the area.
Colin explained that a dog's sense of smell is 10,000 times more powerful and its vision is inferior than humans.
Writing in The Times, Mr Tennant explained: "It can pick up locational scent: each area of land has its own peculiar scent and it maps the land with that olfactory system.
"So it will smell the bank and keep going back to that scent. It will often migrate back to the last spot where it was with the owner because they’re its pack leader."
However, Mr Tennant said that dogs cannot process what is happening if a human falls into a river.
He wrote: "If an owner is walking along the river and fell in, and went under, or the river carried them off, the dog would be absolutely perplexed because it doesn’t understand water like we do. It has no capacity for that. If the owner was screaming or shouting that could increase the dog's confusion."
Tonight, Nicola's partner Paul Ansell issued a statement through the local police force.
He called for answers in the search for the woman and said that her daughters are desperately missing her.
He said: "It's been ten days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.
"This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola’s family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support.
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