Is Your Dog Is A Compass?

[Khandro]

Did you know that dogs defecate in accordance with the earth's magnetic field?
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jan/08/dogs-defecate-earths-magnetic-field-research-finds

[aelmpvw]

useful information, no need to take my compass next time i take my best friend out

[Baldric]

"Get a Life" for goodness sake!

[Prudie]

It's probably just a position that keeps the sun out of their eyes

[woofgang]

This was posted recently on a dog owners forum I frequent. We did some ad hoc research and concluded that it was a load of bull poo.

[chrissa1]

As long as my dog has a dense patch of grass and a hedge to ram his rear end up against, he doesn't care in which direction he does his business. Utter rubbish.

[Khandro]

It seems a strange business to me.

[Baldric]

Would the results have been any better/worse if they had used Pointers?

[jim360]

Anyone planning on reading the actual paper?

[silencefalls]

Just skimmed the paper. The investigators have conducted a wide range of statistical tests. They appear to have ruled out other factors, eg sun direction. It appears that the effect is only seen at times when the Earth's magnetic field is stable (it actually fluctuates a lot). This latter would suggest that an ad hoc study among dog owners would be unlikely to find an effect. The study involved 70 dogs from 37 different breeds over a two year period.

[jomifl]

/ It appears that the effect is only seen at times when the Earth's magnetic field is stable (it actually fluctuates a lot)./
over what sort of time period? I used to use the earth's magnetic field for navigation over periods of time that a dog could have had several hundred bowel evacuations.

[Frank97]

If we didn't use lavatories, I wonder if we'd be the same?

[Khandro]

^ Outdoors, modesty and privacy (also wind direction!) are important factors for humans.

[Frank97]

Good points, especially the wind direction.

[silencefalls]

jomifl

[silencefalls]

jomifl ... second attempt - AB swallowed some of my first response. It appears from the paper that the variations are those micro-variations that occur throughout a day in certain circumstances. Of course, there are also major variations due to solar activity, for example. It is worth skimming the paper.

[boxtops]

Some people have far too much time on their hands!

[jomifl]

My point silencefalls, such as it is, is that I don't think micro-variations in the magnetic field matter since the experimenter was measuring the dog's alignment with an instrument that is not very accurate and is anyway using the same magnetic field as it's reference point so any variations are irrelevant. What is needed next is to see if dogs choose hillsides parallel with the angle of dip and repeat experiments near the magnetic pole and equator to see if the angle of dip is a factor :o)

[jomifl]

Boxy, as long as it is only time..

[boxtops]

Bleah, jomifl :-(

[silencefalls]

jomifl ... it appears that the paper covers deviation of axial alignment of spine from the direction of magnetic north (MN). If MN moves and the dog aligns with the field then the deviation will tend to be zero. So if the method is using a magnetic compass then variations in direction of MN should be immaterial. Hopefully the paper's referees would have taken up points like this with the authors prior to acceptance for publication.