I came across some rather interesting work by a certain zoologist Müller from Basel who did meticulous experiments with homing in dogs that to my knowledge have never been repeated. He made several interesting observations: 1. Based on their behavior he classified the dogs into
3 ranks that in principle might have corresponded to their place in the ancestral wolf-pack state. Dominant curs αs; middle ranked βs and low-ranked submissive ωs. He found that only αs and high βs were able to home successfully.This is keeping with earlier observations with army
dogs that only some of them home. It suggests that keeping home range is important for αs. ωs tended to find street dog companions if available or human dwellings. 2. He found that the homers went through an initial phase of orientation at the unknown release site. Once that was
achieved, he claimed, they tended to advance home along short paths without being distracted unlike a dog exploring its typical range. 3. They tended to not to keep their nose to the ground as they do when navigating by scent. Instead, he states that they held their head high in
an unusual posture and had a strange look in their eye. He even states that they might collide with obstacles when swiftly moving towards their home suggesting they were not visually very attentive to their immediate surroundings.
This again hints a magnetic sense although by no means has that been confirmed or mechanistically understood.
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