What a scatting dog can tell us about their senses

Or: What do dogs and birds have in common?

For animals like birds, whales, and even some bacteria, a magnetoreceptive sense (sensing the earth’s magnetic field) is already known for quite a long time. But also for some terrestrial mammals, studies show evidence of magnetoreception. The example known longest, is the blind mole rat, a rodent living underground and digging surprisingly straight maze-like complex tunnels (fun fact: with their teeth, not their paws). (Burda et al., 2020)

But also, our domestic dogs may have such a handy sense. If you want to try one of the first studies about this topic in dogs on your own: get yourself a compass and measure the alignment of your dog (precisely: the dog’s spine) while defecating. (Hart et al., 2013) But of course, not all dogs care about the magnetic field. Some just give a shit 😉

As shown by (Benediktová et al., 2020), dogs also use this sense to return to their owner and perform a compass run to calibrate their mental map with the surrounding.

And this is where I start the story of my Ph.D. I am a veterinarian and grew up with dogs, their handling, and training. Behavior was always something I was interested in and now I am (besides other experiments) planning to turn some dogs into living compasses. No, I wouldn’t trust them during a hiking adventure before I know it works properly outside — which will not be part of our experiment. Our experiment will take place in a 4x4m magnetic coil. That is a room where you can create an artificial magnetic field, which can be shifted in different directions. Thus, it’s possible to have an earth-strength magnetic north in the geographic south (or east, or west). It is in a special building in a quiet place, and everything looks the same there inside — to minimize distractions. Our dogs will probably be mostly small hunting dogs like dachshunds and terriers, because they are bred to hunt without their owner’s help and then return, even after several kilometers of running through dense bushes.

For the training, we will use operant conditioning, in a setting where the dogs combine a specific magnetic direction (stimulus) with the reaction of pointing/ going there to get a reward. That means, hopefully: we shift the field, and the dog feels it and goes there to get the reward. We shift, it feels it and responds, being rewarded,… At least: that is the theory! Let’s hope Fortuna is by our side!

If you are interested in behavioral experiments: check also for skinner boxes because our coil is basically a big one.