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Someone asked to be paid to observe dogs defecating.

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Apparently we no longer need compasses. Just bring the dog out to the deck to figure out where we're going.

My lagotto has an exquisite sense for art, he loves to place his work on the best possible pedestal. Sometimes it's a rock or something man-made that's sufficiently elevated and stands out, but he also sometimes plants his ass on top of a bush or a small tree.

Foxes are pretty notorious about that. You'll be hiking and have a gorgeous view and look down and a rock had a fox turd right on it

I guess you could say the study was dogshit.

I mean my dog could be an exception but she shits always in the direction we walk. No exceptions.

Does she spin clockwise or counterclockwise, and does it change when you cross the equator? Important questions

My dog would walk around while pooping, with a weird gait that involved putting his back paws ahead of his front paws. I once saw another dog do a handstand to poop.

If you're not in a hurry (and you know which hemisphere you're in) you can make a sun compass to figure out whether the dog pooped north or south. Come to think of it, you can make a sun compass observing a pooping dog first.

Have you tried just restarting it?

Might just need to be calibrated, try turning her in a figure eight in front of you a few times before the next poop and see if she aligns.

Time of day is addressed in the study and

was not a reliable predictor of expression of alignment

They also mention that the presence of the sun is possibly likely to affect dogs less than humans - meaning that dogs might have less aversion to facing the sun.

Study is here: https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-80

This doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t they orient west in the morning and east in the evening?

My favorite explanation. Occam's razor, ladies and gentlemen.