Dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the North-south axis under calm MF conditions. This directional behavior was abolished under Unstable MF. The best predictor of the behavioral switch was the rate of change in declination, i.e., polar orientation of the MF.

Next time your best friend is doing his/her business, maybe you can pull out the compass on your iPhone and do your own research.

I'm curious what prompted the researchers to set off on this arduous experiment. What the hell, I'm going to tag this post with “science.”

We measured the direction of the body axis in 70 dogs of 37 breeds during defecation (1,893 observations) and urination (5,582 observations) over a two-year period.