How Dogs Find Their Way Home Miles Away

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Returnees: how do dogs find their way home miles away?

The dog is well oriented in familiar territory. Some owners safely send the pet for a walk on their own, and he always returns home. But there are also stories when dogs returned to their homes, finding their way out of unfamiliar terrain or distant territories. How do they manage to navigate in such a space?

How a dog can find its way home

I would like to start with a statement that contradicts the title - many dogs, finding themselves in an unfamiliar place, cannot find their way home, they get lost. This happens when the pet runs away from the owner, obeying the hunter's instinct. At this moment, he is so concentrated on escaping prey that he does not pay attention to other smells, does not leave marks in unfamiliar places. But the defining moment in orientation for a dog is precisely the sense of smell.

Many repetitive or identical elements of our reality (a huge number of vehicles, the same houses) make it difficult for the dog to return home. There were cases when a dog could climb several floors in a high-rise building, but sat by other people's apartments only because on the staircase they are located on the same side as the owner's.

Therefore, finding himself in a foreign place, the dog can find his way home only by accident. She does not know in which direction the house is, and only a chain of familiar smells can lead her to a certain territory, where she can easily find her place of residence.

In social networks, I subscribed to a page of local volunteers who help all animals in trouble. Starting from the first warm days, announcements about the loss or discovery of pets, often thoroughbred, become the main content. Obeying the sexual instinct, they run away after the "lady of the heart" or leave with their boyfriends. Most of them remain undiscovered.

What are the landmarks for a dog to find a home

Some dogs can still return home, even if they find themselves in an unfamiliar place. It depends on many factors that are not even directly related to the pet's abilities:

• Dogs are able to pick up familiar odors at a very great distance if the aroma is quite “powerful”, say, coming from a river, lake in the vicinity of a home, factory or factory. These smells are carried by the wind for many kilometers, so by following them, the dog can enter familiar territory.
• The dog is also helped by the fact that it instinctively tries to get out on the road or trail that it associates with a person. Sometimes she can run along the highway for many kilometers and accidentally discover a familiar smell that will lead her home.

Other factors are directly related to the ability of the pet:

• The ancestors of domestic dogs - wolves - can navigate, most likely, by heavenly bodies, because it has been proven that they can go very long distances from the den and return. Perhaps the dogs inherited this ability, even to those who have long been not very similar to their ancestor in appearance (for example, Pekingese) or firmly settled in apartments (indoor breeds). But, of course, in hunting breeds it is much more pronounced.
• The ability of the dog to remember cannot be ruled out. Therefore, the smarter the pet, how quickly he was able to learn new things, the higher his chances of returning home from an unfamiliar place.

Owner Tips

To increase the pet's chances of returning home, the owner needs to know the following:

• Most often lost are those dogs that always walk on a leash. During a walk, their orientation mechanism is turned off, they mark the territory, guess smells, and their owner leads them.
• The farther a dog walks from home (on foot, without travel by transport), the wider its "memory card" and the more chances that it will find its way home, accidentally lost.
• Simple things like a collar tag or just a handwritten phone number on the back will increase your pet's chances of returning home. This is also facilitated by a chip implanted under the skin, which contains, among other things, the owner's contact information.

Amazing comeback stories

One of the amazing stories of the return of the dog happened in 1923 in the United States. The owners with the dog Bobby (a cross between a Scottish collie and an English shepherd) traveled around Indiana, where their pet disappeared. After a few days of searching in vain, the family returned home to Oregon. And six months later, Bobby got to his home - emaciated and with his paws knocked out in blood. The distance covered by him during this time is about 4 thousand kilometers. In his hometown of Silverstone, Bobby stands a monument and a silent film Call of the West was filmed in his honor.

Dog Bobby was not at home for half a year, during which time he covered a distance of 4 thousand kilometers

Jack Russell Terrier Jarvis used the ferry to get home. He got lost while walking in a park in another city. Absent for 2 days. It is noteworthy that the family went for a walk by other means of transport.

Jarvis took the ferry to return home

Lost, a dog may equally find its home or not. In this matter, not only her abilities play a role, but also the distance to the house, as well as the case that can lead the pet to the territory of familiar smells. Owners should be concerned about the identification mark on the dog's collar in advance to increase the chances of being returned.