The Science Behind How Dogs Find Their Way Home
We’ve all seen those amazing stories of dogs finding their ways back home after months of being gone. New research is helping shed the light on animal navigation, and giving us a better understanding of how different animals are able to find their way back home.
How Scientists Believe Dogs Find Their Way Home
When dogs go missing one suggestion that’s often made is to leave out a piece of clothing or bedding for them; something with a familiar smell.
New research has found that dogs rely on familiar scents to find their way back home, and those scents can lead them a long way. A 10 mile distance isn’t that far for a dog to follow a scent as long as the wind conditions are right.
Dogs are able to hone in on one specific smell (a familiar person, animal, pee marked tree) and follow it for long distances. They rely on overlapping circles of familiar scents to find their way back home, much like we can rely on cell phone pings on towers to find specific locations.
A dog that wanders out of its own immediate range might pick up the scent of, say, a familiar dog in the next circle. That might point it to a circle that contains a familiar person or tree or restaurant trash can, and so on. – The Amazing Science Behind Pets That Find Their Way Home
While leaving out some familiar clothing can help your dog find his way home it’s sadly not a guarantee. Scent trails don’t last forever. For the few stories we hear on the news of dogs finding their way home after months there’s hundreds that don’t.
“If you lose your dog or cat, don’t forget to place their bedding, your bedding, your pajamas, the dog’s blanket, or your blanket, outside. It could be the thing that brings them home.” via No Dog About It
How Cats & Other Mammals Navigate
Cats, like many other mammals, are likely relying on magnetism to find their way around. Some studies have shown that many mammals contain iron in their ears, and that may help cue them into the magnetic direction in the ground.
One of the most remarkable animals with great navigation skills is the pigeon. It used to be believed that they found their way back home via the iron in their beak, but later studies found that the iron was related to their immune system, not navigation.
In 2013 a geologist found that pigeons are likely using low-frequency sound waves to navigate their way back home – even over hundreds of miles. And this theiry also helps to explain why they occasionally get lost when there’s interruptions such as high winds or jets.
The idea is that pigeons use these low-frequency infrasound waves to generate acoustic maps of their surroundings, and that’s how they find home even when they are released miles from where they dwell. – How Homing Pigeons Find Their Way Home
Seabirds are believed to use the sun and stars as their compass since they tend to get lost when it’s overcast. Deer, cattle & voles are likely using magnetism since seem to orient in a north-south direction.
When it Comes to Animal Navigation We’re Still Learning
Scientists still don’t know how dogs (especially trained search dogs) are able to hone in one scent and follow it without getting distracted. And while we believe cats are using magnetism like birds do to find their way home it’s possible they’re using mental maps.
There’s still a lot of unknowns in the world of animal navigation, and some scientists believe that evolution has given animals numerous ways to sense magnetic fields, many of which we still haven’t discovered.
What we know is that animals have the ability to navigate long distances without the use of maps, but we’re humbled to say we still don’t know exactly how they’re doing it.
Animals really are amazing. We can learn so much from them!
My dog found her way home and it was about a mile away from home. In town. So she was very lucky to have not been ran over. Shes a small yorkie/chiwawa
oh that soo good
My dog wandered beyond her normal territory.
She ended up (after 10 days) directly across the lake from our house.
She had found another house with food and two doggy friends.
She seemed to think that the only way home was a straight line which meant swimming across the lake which she would/could not do.
Finally, we drove around the lake, called her; she came and has not wandered so far since.
Her fixation on straight line navigation seems interesting.
O it’s very nice my dog also missing
my dog is missing for a month now and we’re still searching for her
I sure hope you find your baby soon. Im so sorry. My doggie got lost on my bday it’s been one week today. With no sightings. Im so scared. Hoping for their happy return home!!
Well she is an animal, the logical thinking needed to go AROUND an obstacle is just not natural for an animal
Our didogg ran away 4-5 days agosgo after being scared by fireworksfireworks. We ve spent days looking for him, very distressing. But we are trying to remain hopeful.
Did you find him?
Are there steps I can take to assist his ability to find his way home if he wanders again?
He has a great desire to explore. Maybe he would just keep going for the next interesting thing and never turn back. But if he were to try to find home are there things I can do as we walk the neighborhood to assist him finding home.
My Labrador retriever left home last night, it has been 8 hours, tried to find in town but didn’t.
Hopefully He will find his home back.
:(((
Our Zoey ran off on her evening walk today. Looked for her everywhere. I am in distress. I hope and pray she finds her way home.
One year ago, a lady that lived a block away from our old house had lost her dog. Our daughter saw her looking for it and she got on her bike and rode around until she found her dog and brought it to her house.
Incredibly enough, this is the same lady and house in which our mini dachshund Lola turned up when she got lost two weeks ago. She was lost for 8 hours, walked 2.3 miles, crossed one main busy road and 2 dozen streets on a 100 degree weather but managed found her way back to our old neighborhood and landed on the same house of the lady whose dog we have rescued a year ago.
Dogs do find their way home even if it’s your old home
There is an infinite feeling of doing well for someone else and it coming back to you.
Good luck to those whose family pets have been lost.
My dog Fozzy Bear is a soft hair Wheaton terrier of 7 months ran away this morning following a neighbor on her morning walk. Lucky for us my wife and I got into our car and scoured our neighborhood. We found Fozzy attempting to board a school bus picking up kids for school today. He was at the head of the line.
My 3 year old chorkie son has been missing for 10 days now. I cry myself to sleep every night! The pain is unbearable not knowing what happened. I was sitting outside with him, 5-10 minutes out of site he vanished! No sounds, no evidence of being killed NOTHING! He never leaves my side except to go on the side of the house to pee which is right by the road. I truly believe someone took him. I pray everyday he finds his way home. My family is completely crushed and don’t know what to do?
There are several street dogs near my house. I feed them everyday but one of them is chased the people.So my neighbours dump him 6.6km away from our street.That area is full of sugar plants and no houses. But he found the way home after 2 weeks of being dumped. I was so happy and I keep him in my house.I contacted shelters for him.
Folks don’t worry you dog will come back,
Here is my story,
I have 2 Siberian Huskys, we live by Lassen national park in 400 acre property, my dogs stay outside and patrol there territory every day,
Las month we went camping 200 miles away, I let them out of the truck and they took off chasing an animal, I had GPS tracking on the mail pack leader husky, with in 3 hours there were 54 miles away, I lost GPS signal, battery died on his device, I thought I lost them ,
they same back the next morning.
YOUR DOG IS SMARTER THAN YOU THINK,
My 3 eskies ran away during a thunderstorm 2 days ago, they separated and I’ve found 2 of them that were together.
If I go out with the 2 I’ve found, could the third smell their scent and find her way back??
Just moved to kingman arizona on 11/25 and my dog of 14 years is lost last seen11/27/@ about 2-3pm near pacific and eastern. PLEASE HELP ME FIND “BEAR”! Mixed breed friendly with people and children but NOT other animals!!!$500.00 CASH for finder.760 819 9357 Roy.
We had a dog show up at our house during a storm 2 months ago and she hasn’t left. We work out of town so we’ve tried to find her a home. We had our son take her to a his boss’s house since they foster dogs til they can find them a home. The dog got out and came back to our house from 6 miles away.
My dog took off while I turned to fix the leash on the other dog (have 3) ..it was around the block but the road would end up at a very second different area..suddenly I turned to find him missing (small chihtzu 4yrs)…i was devastated came back home with the other 2…took my car key..start the engine..moved forward to find him infront of me…my good clever child was standing there in the middle of the street..he just took around and decided to come back.im a happy mom now I can sleep soundly.
When I walk my dog down my street after exploring our local neighborhood, he perks up as he gets closer to our house. When I have dropped the dog leash, he has gotten right up to the front door on his own. If I try to walk past the house when he is tired and he wants to go inside, he has pulled back on the leash to indicate where he wanted to go—home.
When I was a kid, my grandad had an old dog named BloJo. He was a mutt, and Grandad really loved him. He and my grandmother had a farm in Orange County, NC. Unable to keep it going, they finally had to sell it, relocating to the east of Durham, a distance of about 20 miles, to move in with my aunt and uncle. Grandad felt in wouldn’t right to expect them to house his dog, so he gave the dog away to neighboring farmer.
Incredibly, months after they had moved, BloJo showed up at the back door, even though he’d never been to the house before! Needless to say, there was no way my Grandad was going to send old BloJo back, and and he kept that dog until it died
You give me hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a big advocate for microchipping dogs. We have also microchipped our cats and dogs. A quick scan done at a vet’s, a shelter or, the humane society is enough to identify its owners. 2 summers ago, we found one of our dogs missing for three days, having been trapped and dumped at the local Shelter. https://esacare.com/top-three-dog-training-myths-explained-by-14-renowned-experts/
Collars and tags help, but they can come off. We found one of our cats missed for six months, 3 miles away from our home. She walked to someone’s backyard and was playing with their dog. Her collar buckle was loose and was about to come off. Attempting to secure it, they notice our address and phone no. and contacted us. Her reunion with our German Shepherd still brings tears to my eyes.