Dogs Poop in Alignment with Earth's Magnetic Field

Here's a story that has been making headlines around the country and world.  Scientists have discovered that like several species of mammal, dogs poop in alignment with the Earth's magnetic field. They studied 70 dogs and 1,893 poops (and 5,582 pees).

The article was published in the academic journal Frontiers in Zoology on December 27, 2013 and entitled "Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field."  There were many contributing authors: Vlastimil Hart, Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Miloš Ježek, Tomáš Kušta, Veronika Němcová, Jana Adámková, Kateřina Benediktová, Jaroslav Červený and Hynek Burdal.  The article's abstract gives a summary of the findings: dogs prefer to align themselves along the north - south axis as long as the magnetic field is stable.  The results change when the magnetic field is unstable.  The full text of the article is also available.

Here are all of the stories I've found about this breakthrough for modern science (so far):

Of course the New York Post has the story.
PBS Newshour covered the story.
Here's the story in the L.A. Times.
The Raw Story picked it up.
And the Huffington Post.
This version of the story is from a website called Motherboard Vice.
DogHeirs covered it.

I'm sure there are more versions of the story out there, but by now you probably get the gist of it.  I find it funny how many reputable news sources picked up the story.  Part of the fun is all the images on these sites.  I've embedded some below for your enjoyment.