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Dogs Homing Instincts

Last week there was an odd article in the local paper about a dog finding its way home over a distance of forty miles. It's strange how little dog lovers seem to know about their animals.

There are many theories about how animals and birds move around. It is not unusual for a dog (in this case) to find its way back forty miles. In fact, that is a piddling distance. Birds manage to get it right over a distance of several thousand miles, and so do salmon. There is no reason why dogs cant do the same.

Animals detect the way magnetic forces affect them. Birds migrate following a magnetic projection that is built into their behaviour patterns (instinct). Fish, deer, dogs, and many other beasts have the same receptors.

There is another way in which one can find one's way around, and that is if you can see polarised light. I used to be able to see it very clearly as a child, but my ability in that respect has paled over the years, and I now have great difficulty in seeing it at all. I am sure birds chart their routes because they can see polarised light, and they line it up very much in the way animals line up magnetic forces.

Humans are no different, except that we have tended to become more and more reliant upon machines, and have, over the centuries, lost the ability to use many of the resources we were born with. Many people are affected by the magnetic pull of the moon, and we now have measuring devices which can find the exact direction of pull by the moon on the liquid in a thimble. Living creatures have an even finer system of measurement. They use a substance called magnetite, which is usually located at the front of the head. In birds it is located just behind the beak. In dogs, and even in humans, it is usually located at the back of the nose.

john


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