How Are Dogs Able To Find Their Way Back Home?

We’ve all heard stories about how dogs manage to find their way home. Sometimes, people leave out bedding, clothing, or familiar items to bring them back, but sometimes they manage to do so without our help. How?

According to new research, familiar scents are what help dogs find their way home. With the right conditions of wind, even 10 miles isn’t that far for a dog to track a scent back home. This is because they have the innate ability to hone in on very specific smells, like the scent of a familiar person, and use that to guide them.

How does this work? Dogs try to locate a scent from a nearby object, using that to jump from object and object, tracking just one smell. Sadly, scent trails do not last forever – there’s only so much that a dog’s senses can do if the scents have faded.

But what about cats, or other mammals? Many actually use magnetism as a navigational tool! They have iron inside of their ears that allows them to make use of the earth’s magnetism. Pigeons are especially impressive – they use low-frequency sound waves in order to locate their homes or destinations, allowing them to traverse hundreds of miles accurately.

Feature Image Source: Pixabay