Dogs can be trained to find a bar magnet.

Magnetoreception, the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field (MF), is a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. In 1966, the first report on a magnetosensitive vertebrate, the European robin (), was published. After that, numerous further species of different taxa have been identified to be magnetosensitive as well.

Directional preference in dogs: Laterality and "pull of the north".

Laterality is a well described phenomenon in domestic dogs. It was shown that dogs, under calm Earth's magnetic field conditions, when marking their home ranges, tend to head about north- or southwards and display thus magnetic alignment. The question arises whether magnetic alignment might be affected or even compromised by laterality and vice versa.