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Thagyr t1_j7t5a7k wrote

Dogs have amazing senses of direction. We left our family dog at our aunts on the other side of town once before we left on a trip. Aunt called into our drive to say she escaped. Dad takes the second car and heads back to help search only to find her sitting at home on the front porch like nothing had happened.

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OversharedSecret t1_j7ujl3g wrote

My mom always tells a story of how when she was a kid, my grandparents and her moved to a new home and after a few hours at the new house they realized the dog had escaped. They got a call a while later from their ex-neighbor to tell them the dog was right outside the old house. It had somehow memorized the way back while being taken by car to the new place.

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toxicatedscientist t1_j7vbdvn wrote

Dogs can smell direction. No really, they smell in stereo with enough fidelity to determine age of scent. So just like our ears can hear which side is louder to get direction, they can tell which way is the newer/older smell and get direction of travel

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1palmier t1_j7vf3ah wrote

This is the best ELI5 about dogs ability to smell, I’ve been wondering how it works lately. My dog will pick up a scent and I can see the direction based on the prints in the snow but there’s no way he’s reading that but he’s always right…

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misconfigbackspace t1_j7vkm1c wrote

That long snout is a time capsule in constant use, capturing places and scents frame by frame whiff by whiff.

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Writer10 t1_j7v1kke wrote

Cats too. My family moved from Michigan to Florida. Somewhere in Ohio, cat jumped out of the car at a rest stop. A year later during a visit with friends, they said she was living under our old house. Sure enough, there she was.

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Bigolecattitties t1_j7xobxf wrote

I went on vacation to the beach with my beagle. My husband left the tent early in the morning and drove several miles down the beach to fish. My husband let him runoff and he found my tent in the campground all those miles away in a completely foreign area to him. I just remembered waking up to a bunch of missed calls and texts from my husband saying please don’t be mad but he lost the dog and the dog has somehow let himself into the tent and is sitting next to me. He ran away from his previous owners who abused him, so it warmed my heart to know he was running back to his mother(me).

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raeflower t1_j7uq5rc wrote

I suddenly want to watch homeward bound again

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Ricolabonbon t1_j7v86r4 wrote

It's bred into them. If you send your dog off to track, catch and retrieve a wounded animal, it needs to find its way back to you.

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Ignonym t1_j7y298r wrote

Wolves didn't have MapQuest--they had to get around somehow.

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