- MentalEdge ( @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz ) English53•5 months ago
Studies like this have me confused.
How do we know they use the magnetic field, and don’t just like… Look at the sun, or the shadows it casts.
- mobius_slip ( @mobius_slip@beehaw.org ) English6•5 months ago
Presumably, they’d do the same thing at night.
But in that case, we’d need to be sure that they aren’t using the North Star.
- Another Catgirl ( @anothercatgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English40•5 months ago
I blame the sun. Dogs poop in the morning and evening when owners are not at work. The sun shines from the east and from the west during these hours. And I think they don’t like facing the sun.
- partiallycyber ( @partiallycyber@ttrpg.network ) English11•5 months ago
Time of day is addressed in the study and
was not a reliable predictor of expression of alignment
They also mention that the presence of the sun is possibly likely to affect dogs less than humans - meaning that dogs might have less aversion to facing the sun.
Study is here: https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-80
- LibertyLizard ( @LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ) English7•5 months ago
This doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t they orient west in the morning and east in the evening?
- Leate_Wonceslace ( @Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English18•5 months ago
If the study was re-attempted in-Doors with a mechanism to control the magnetic field, we could be able to verify that dogs are orienting by the magnetic field instead of, say, the position of the sun.
- 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️ ( @Kolanaki@yiffit.net ) English8•5 months ago
Gonna start bringing a compass with me when walking my dogs now…
- Stalinwolf ( @Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca ) English7•5 months ago
My pug used to shit right on top of rocks.
- BakerBagel ( @BakerBagel@midwest.social ) English8•5 months ago
Foxes are pretty notorious about that. You’ll be hiking and have a gorgeous view and look down and a rock had a fox turd right on it
- Shareni ( @Shareni@programming.dev ) English7•5 months ago
- Shareni ( @Shareni@programming.dev ) English4•5 months ago
My lagotto has an exquisite sense for art, he loves to place his work on the best possible pedestal. Sometimes it’s a rock or something man-made that’s sufficiently elevated and stands out, but he also sometimes plants his ass on top of a bush or a small tree.
- Emmie ( @Emmie@lemm.ee ) English6•5 months ago
This is some real shit
- pH3ra ( @pH3ra@lemmy.ml ) English4•5 months ago
Literally the shittiest compass ever
- DivineDev ( @DivineDev@kbin.run ) 2•5 months ago
They really do want an Ig Nobel Prize.
- Pyr_Pressure ( @Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca ) English1•5 months ago
I would assume it’s because pooping is a very vulnerable moment, and they prefer to not face the sun and being blinded while doing so.