That's why dogs that get lost always know how to find their way home

A new study has shown that when dogs get lost they can potentially find their way home thanks to magnetic fields

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Dogs have a thousand resources and abilities, mostly known to their human friends but recently a new study has shown that when they get lost they are potentially able to find their way home thanks to magnetic fields.

It is a revolutionary study involving various universities and research institutions. Authors include scientists from the Czech University of Life Sciences and Virginia Tech. For three years they monitored the "navigational" abilities of 27 hunting dogs belonging to 10 different breeds.

The animals were equipped with a GPS collar and a small camera and were left free to roam the wooded areas. After a while, they were called back by their owners (hidden from their sight) but had to figure out how to find them. The dogs completed 600 total runs. From the analysis of their behavior it emerged that all began their return journeys to their owners thanks to a sort of internal compass. In fact, their homeward run aligned on the Earth's north-south magnetic axis.

“We expect dogs to be able to find their way to the owner by following their scent return path (a strategy called 'tracking') or that they can perform true navigation, the ability to return home over great distances without relying on reference points based on the path or information acquired during the move, a strategy that we have defined “scouting” is read in the study.

Scouting allows you to take shortcuts and could be faster but requires navigational skills and, due to possible errors, is risky. Precisely this convinced the researchers, now certain that dogs use their ability to detect magnetic fields to move through space.

Elife

“When they return to their owner (home), the dogs follow their outbound track (“ tracking ”) or use a new route (“ scouting “). The track during the scouting started mainly with a short run (about 20 m) along the north-south geomagnetic axis, regardless of the actual direction home. Performing such a “compass stroke” significantly increased the reference point search efficiency. We propose that this race is instrumental to bring the mind map with the magnetic compass and to establish the direction of the animal ”explain the scientists.

Research suggests that the magnetic field can provide dogs with a "universal" frame of reference that is critical for long-distance navigation and is probably the missing link in our current understanding of dog behavior and cognition.

Science aside, we have to be happy as puppies are always able to come back to us.

Sources of reference: eLife

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