Anthony Carboni here for DNews. Dogs seemingly need to spin before just about everything—going to the bathroom, lying down, when they're excited.

Dogs are weird. Why are dogs weird?

In terms of spinning, I mean.

Circling before going to sleep at night might seem weird on your couch,

but in the wild, dogs would spin and trample to push down tall grasses and underbrush, pack down snow, and drive away snakes and insects.

It kept them clean, warm, and hidden.

Flattening the ground in circles could also have been a sign to other dogs wandering by that the territory had already been claimed.

Those hygienic and territorial instincts might factor into why they spin before going to the bathroom, too.

Patting down underbrush keeps the dog's waste from sticking to it and then rubbing it on their own fur.

Also, patting down the area could allow for the scents in their urine and feces to spread farther, making it clearer what territory they marked.

But there's an even newer, weirder theory about why puppy poop spins happen that I am WAY more into.

We've talked before about magnetoception, a sense that allows some animals to feel the earth's magnetic field.

Birds use it in migration, some studies say cows use it to align themselves in a north-south pattern when they graze,

and now it seems like dogs use it to poop in exactly the same direction.

In a study published recently in Frontiers in Zoology, researchers watched 70 dogs across 37 different breeds for two years as they pulled off a poop spin combo.

And they all preferred to poop aligned north-to-south when the earth's magnetic field is calm.

That's about 20 percent of the time during daylight hours.

During things like solar flares or geomagnetic storms or other events, they were much less picky about it.

The researchers aren't sure why they prefer it, but they did note that not only do dogs want to poop north-south, they actively avoid a straight-up east-west orientation.

I wonder if it's some sort of remnant of a past, stronger sense they had.

You know, we humans have proteins in our eyes that make researchers think that at some point we could SEE earth's magnetic field.

And it seems like a strong magnetic sense would help pack animals move and hunt in some way.

But why the pooping, dogs? Why the poop direction?

Do you guys have any theories? Spin around about three times and let me know down below.

Oh, and if you're into dogs, our friends at Animalist News are going to the Westminster Dog Show in New York City.

They'll be there on the 10th and the 11th, so head over and subscribe now so you don't miss it.