dog breeds that start with n

sorry, just looking for a place to lie down. [music] anthony carboni here for dnews. dogs seeminglyneed to spin before just about everything. going to the bathroom, lying down, when they'reexcited- dogs are weird. why are dogs weird? in terms of spinning, i mean. circling before going to sleep might seemweird on your couch, but in the wild, dogs would spin and trample to push down tall grassesand underbrush, pack down snow, and drive away snakes and insects. it kept them clean,warm, and hidden. flattening the ground in circles could also have been a sign to otherdogs wandering by that the territory had already

been claimed. those hygiene and territorial instincts mightfactor into why they spin before going to the bathroom, too- patting down underbrushkeeps the dog's waste from sticking to it and then rubbing on their own fur. also, pattingdown the area could allow for the scents in their urine and feces to spread farther, makingit clearer what territory they marked. but there's an even newer, weirder theoryabout puppy poop spins that i am way more into. we've talked before about magnetoception,a sense that allow some animals to feel earth's magnetic field. birds use it in migration,some studies say cows use it to align themselves in a north-south pattern when they graze andnow it seems like dogs use it to poop in exactly

the same direction. in a study published recently in frontiersin zoology, researchers watched 70 dogs across 37 breeds for two years as they pulled offa poop spin combo and they all prefered to poop aligned north-to-south when the earth'smagnetic field is calm. that's about 20 percent of the time during daylight hours. duringthings like solar flares or geomagnetic storms or other events, they were less picky aboutit. the researchers aren't sure why they preferit- but they did note that not only do dogs prefer north-south, they actively avoid astraight-up east/west orientation. i wonder if its some remnant of a past, strongersense they had. we humans have proteins in

our eyes that make researchers think thatat some point in the past we could see earth's magnetic field. it seems like a strong magneticsense would help pack animals move and hunt in some way. but why the pooping, dogs? whyis the poop direction important? do you guys have any theories? spin aroundthree times and let me know down below. oh, and if you're into dogs, our friends at animalistnews are going to the westminster dog show in nyc. they'll be there on the 10th and 11th,so head over and subscribe now so you don't miss it.