Understanding Play in Dogs: What It Tells Us About Emotional State and Welfare with Katarína Bučková
Your Webinar Description:
Play is widely considered a hallmark of positive welfare, yet its functions, meanings, and implications are often oversimplified. This webinar begins by introducing play from a biological and evolutionary perspective, exploring why play occurs across species and how it contributes to emotional, social, and cognitive development. The focus then shifts to dogs, examining how domestication and close coevolution with humans have shaped the way dogs play, how they communicate during play, and how their play differs from that of other mammals and wild canids.
Building on this foundation, the webinar explores different types of play in dogs and their relevance for welfare assessment. Participants will examine whether play can be reliably used as an indicator of positive emotional state, and when play may instead reflect heightened arousal, coping strategies, or social pressure. Factors influencing play behaviour—such as age, breed, individual differences, and context—will be discussed, alongside potential risks, including escalation, misinterpretation, and negative experiences when play is forced or poorly matched. The webinar concludes with a discussion of dog–human play, highlighting variability in play styles and communication, and offering a welfare-informed framework for interpreting play more thoughtfully in everyday and professional contexts.
Your Presenters- Katarína Bučková
Katarína Bučková is an animal welfare researcher with a background in animal behaviour, affective science, and cognition. Her work focuses on understanding how animals experience their environment emotionally, and how behavioural indicators—such as play—can be interpreted in relation to welfare rather than training outcomes. She has worked primarily in academic research settings and is currently involved in research on shelter dog welfare, including the refinement of welfare assessment tools, evaluation of dog emotional states based on behaviour, and collaborative work on automated approaches to detecting affective states.
Although much of her empirical research has focused on farm animals, her work is grounded in comparative and cross-species perspectives, drawing on a broad scientific literature that includes companion animals. She is especially interested in translating behavioural science into welfare-relevant insights for applied contexts, while avoiding oversimplified or prescriptive interpretations. Through her work and outreach, she aims to support more nuanced, ethical, and evidence-based understanding of animal behaviour—particularly in cases where commonly used behavioural indicators may be misinterpreted or overgeneralised
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