Keven Kerswell

Keven is a PhD student enrolled at Melbourne University, but co-supervised by Pauleen as part of her involvement in the Animal Welfare Science Centre. He is studying the effect of morphology on communication in the dog (canis familiaris).

Social animals such as wolves have evolved species-specific communication systems that assist in regulating social interactions including aggression. Wolves use a range of visual, auditory and olfactory signals and many of the visual signals utilise morphological features such as ears and tails. Selective breeding and adherence to artificial breed standards that do not include a communication component have lead to a variety of morphologies in dogs, and some dog breeds that are not lupine in appearance may now lack the mechanisms required to send the above signals. If communication, both in terms of delivering species-specific signals and in recognition of these signals, breaks down, misunderstanding between dogs or between dogs and humans may lead to a range of problems such as aggression and training difficulties.

It is the aim of this project to examine the development of investigative social behaviour in dogs and how it may be affected by breed and morphology by studying the social behaviour of dogs towards littermates during rearing, towards unfamiliar dogs of either the same or different breeds during in the juvenile period and towards unfamiliar dogs of the same and different breeds in adulthood (one-year old).

Email: Keven.Kerswell@med.monash.edu.au or Keven.Kerswell@yahoo.com.au