From NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/03/259416979/everyone-poops-but-dogs-do-it-with-magnetism

Effectively, this is the first time any mammal has been observed reacting to the conditions of the magnetic field - now that we know this is possible scientists will be on the look out for other mammals reacting to the Earth's magnetic field. For now you can run the experiment yourself with a compass, a pen and notepad, and a pet dog - go on, watch Fido poop. Do it for science!

Please tell me they did that for free, because if they got funding...

Scientists confirmed for too much time on their hands.

I feel like I have a better understanding of the world now.

What a load of dog [censored]

Pfft.... This is the U.S. government we are talking about here who spends money like a group of valley girls at the mall. If the government did fund this, and it very likely did since most scientific studies get it's funding from government (and if it was NPR who broke this study/story you can be sure it was federally funded ), I predict that this little project cost tax payer's a cool half-million or more.... After all, everything the government funds mysteriously ends up costing 10 times what it should...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think my dog has to go poop...

Who needs a cure for cancer when we can understand the scientific mysteries of how a dog takes a [censored].

If they're aligned north south, what if they're just choosing the direction that has the least sun in their eyes?

Take a hand-held magnet out with you to mess with your dog

It's a fundamental science so its just gathering the information. Sometime in the future some dude could turn it into applied science for whatever thing he creates.

Pfff.. so what?

I poop at an exact perpendicular bisector that's perfectly aligned along the axis going straight through the center of the earth relative from where I am at all times.

I knew a boxer that would line his poops up along the fence. Each pile was 18 inches from the last one. He also could not poop if you were watching him. He would just kind of half squat with a look like "Privacy please"

Oh hell I thought you meant like Tyson for a second there.

Yeah, my first thought was

"He knows George Foreman?"

Sometimes I wonder if people on this forum even know how to read. It says that report was published by scientists at the Czech University of Life Sciences. Last I heard the treaty confirming the Czech Republic as the 51st state had yet to be ratified.

In any case, it's well known that scientific advances are difficult to predict, and usually come from unexpected sources. While it's unlikely that this research is going to lead directly to a new paradigm shift, or to phenomenal medical advances, no individual piece of research ever does. So you can mock it all you like, but this paper (in its own words) opens "new horizons in magnetoreception research", and I fail to see how that isn't good news.

Also it's about poop so it makes me giggle.

Not so sure about the first time a mamal has been observed reacting to the magnetic field.

Foxes are known have better hunting results through snow (pounce and dive head-first into thte snow), when aligned to the north pole. This is from 2011 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/01/11/foxes-use-the-earths-magnetic-field-as-a-targeting-system/

Maybe all of this is a clue as to why they walkinacirclewalkinacirclewalkinacircleflop to sleep

Considering that university deals largely with agricultural studies, magnetic fields and animal waste are probably pretty high on their agenda.

They're flattening the ground or looking for hostile threats before they sleep.

Cure for cancer found!

on a sofa? on carpetted floors? I still ike the theory that they're erecting a "mind wall"

Instinct. Like how humans are afraid of the dark, even though it's quite unlikely anything is hiding in your bathroom at night.