Dog Sense of Orientation

An incredible phenomenon of nature is the almost unbelievable sense of orientation that almost all wild animals display. Each species in their own way and with their own individual characteristics maintains a state of equilibrium within a balanced animal world. The changes that each animal type experiences are many and varied, whether they be animals that live on land, in the air, at sea or are even insects they all respond to stimuli, both internal and external that motivates many of them to migrate and move whether by sea, land or air from continent to continent sometimes covering immense distances thorough unfamiliar territory with no maps or sign posts to point the way. Guided by instinct these animals follow a cycle that is repeated generation after generation and without which their species would cease to exist. While domestic dogs nowadays don't experience this need or urge to migrate, they once followed their human masters on their migratory routes as their hunting masters followed the other wild animals, which were their source of food and on which they depended, on their migratory routes. Today's domestic dog uses its inbuilt and powerful sense of direction and orientation to find its way home everyday, often covering many blocks of constantly changing terrain. Another example we see of this incredible sense of direction that dogs have is when they become separated from their love ones and traverse many kilometers (they have been known to travel for hundreds) to be reunited with the masters that they had become lost from. Also sled dogs are able to find the correct path and return their masters to their camps even in the midst of howling, blinding snowstorms, even though the appearance of the landscape is constantly changing with the moving snow. It is probably not necessary to mention that this is a feat that few humans could ever hope to duplicate. Despite this instinctive sense of direction all dogs should have an identification tag attached to their collars with their masters name, phone number and address so that if they do become lost and then found by other humans they can more quickly find their way home.