Glen Davis
It seems that the United States taxpayers are not the only ones who pay for scientific studies that are full of poop. A research team of Czech and German scientists have finally discovered why dogs seem to gyrate wildly before they take a poop.
Apparently dogs try to align their bodies along the North-South axis in conjunction with their internal compass.
The study—published this week in Frontiers in Zoology—examined the daily habits of 70 dogs during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations over the course of two years. Consistently, during times of calm electromagnetic “weather,” the dogs chose to eliminate while facing north or south.
While this might seem like a stinking study, it would explain that annoying feng shui that dogs exhibit before getting down to business.
There have been instances noted in the past that dogs exhibit unrest before an earthquake or other natural disaster. Thus it has long been suspected that dogs (horses, cattle and other animals, as well) are extremely sensitive to the most minor changes in the earth.
As a personal observation it seems as though my dog is a rebel. Or, perhaps, it is because he is a mixed breed. I have not tested the Poop theory since this study was released. My recollection, however, is that my dog seems to align West-to-East. Even unleashed. So you might want to check your dogs alignment before you decide to use his compass.