Amber review

Review of ‘Canine Communication’ event by Amber Batson, February 2008

By Winkie Spiers

Recently I went to a talk given by Amber Batson, vet and behaviourist, on canine communication and how to interpret canine body language. This is a hugely interesting subject and one about which I feel very enthusiastic - Amber’s approach, knowledge and delivery exceeded all my expectations.

The talk started by stating how we get conflicting messages from many places including media, tv, vets, trainers, neighbours, books and pointed out that there is a lot of hearsay about with no scientific or factual basis. Amber then spoke a little about communication within the animal kingdom in general and how predators communicate with their prey and how even solitary animals such as leopards communicate very effectively using scent. The evolution of the canine was briefly explained going back as far as cimolestes 70 million years ago, this highlighted the fact that their successful communication systems have been developed over millions of years. Dogs have been domesticated for 12 – 14,000 years which statistically means that dogs have lived with humans for only 0.03% of their evolutionary lives! This I found an interesting perspective and I enjoyed the very relevant statistical data that Amber included in describing communication and the senses of the domestic dog.

The talk progressed to methods of communication; body language, vocalisation, smell and scents, visual signals, sight, touch and taste; each of these was explored in detail including looking the anatomy of various organs. Vocalisation was divided into categories and demonstrated with a variety of recorded noises that dogs make so that the audience was really clear on how varied the noises are in type, intensity and frequency depending on the circumstances. The dogs’ sense of smell, hearing and sight was compared directly and factually with that of the human which really put their wonderfully evolved senses into context and showed why some methods employed when training, living with or handling a dog might not be effective or easy for them to understand. The use of scent transference was explained and it’s uses in improving introductions between dogs and other species. When speaking about body language the problems of breed morphology was explored, how through selective breeding and surgery humans have changed the outline and shape of many breeds so extensively that it can hamper effective communication.

When looking at the vast subject of communication Amber kept putting things into intelligent, and forward thinking context and looked at the whole picture. The talk was logical and informed and made me view the subject of communication with renewed enthusiasm and a greater awareness of how all the senses are used and how amazingly effective they are. The talk finished with an overview of what had been covered during the morning and I found that I had covered 6 sides of A4 paper with notes – a talk packed with facts, interesting observations and delivered concisely and professionally. I am now observing and questioning behaviours more than ever and seeing new relevance in what , where, how and when dogs do what they do. Personally I would like to hear a lot more from Amber Batson.