There are many suggestions as to why dogs turn in circles before lying down but little experimental data.

One suggestion is that dogs are scanning the environment looking for potential danger before resting.

Another suggestion is that dogs are creating a smooth, cozy place to lie down on by trampling the surface.

An experimental test provides some data to suggest that circling behavior is all about comfort.

I recently got an email from a journalist interested in the question of why dogs often turn in circles before they lay down. This triggered a bit of déjà vu for me because about a decade ago a phone call from another journalist about the same issue led me to do an experiment to look into this question. However, in the subsequent 10 years or so I hadn’t followed up on the topic in any systematic way. In her email the journalist wanted to know my opinion about the “new data on the inherited, evolutionary reasons behind this behavior." Since I had not come across any recent data on this subject, I did a literature search and could find no experimental data looking into this question, so I phoned her to find out where this “new data” was coming from.

When I spoke to her, she informed me that she had been speaking with an “expert on canine behavior” who told her that the newest data indicated........

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