When Behaviour Isn’t What It Says on the Tin: How HRV Gives Dogs a Voice in Grooming, Stress and Welfare with Dean Hart
A welfare‑centred look at how physiological data can reveal the emotional truth behind grooming‑related behaviour.
Your Webinar Description:
Dogs communicate stress long before behaviour becomes obvious — but many of their earliest signals are physiological, subtle, and easily missed. This webinar introduces a welfare‑science approach to understanding canine stress by integrating heart rate variability (HRV), trauma classification frameworks, and sensory load analysis into everyday practice.
Drawing from fieldwork and doctoral research in biological psychology, the session explores how physiological markers can complement behavioural observation to create a more complete picture of canine wellbeing. Participants will learn how auditory, tactile, olfactory, and visual environments shape stress responses, and how these insights can be applied in training, handling, grooming, and shelter settings.
The aim is to equip professionals with practical, evidence‑based tools that help “give dogs a voice” — ensuring their emotional experience is recognised, respected, and central to welfare‑led decision‑making.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the role of HRV as an indicator of canine stress.
- Recognise how sensory load influences behaviour and wellbeing.
- Integrate physiological and behavioural markers for more accurate assessment.
- Apply welfare‑science principles to create emotionally safer environments.
Your Presenters- Dean Hart
Dean Hart is a behavioural biologist and former Senior Clinical Behaviourist whose career spans more than twenty years of hands‑on behavioural practice, welfare‑led rehabilitation, and later‑career academic and research leadership. His early work focused on applied behaviour, owner support, and trauma‑linked presentations in companion animals, while his current practice centres on welfare science, autonomic stress responses, emotional regulation, and comparative behavioural ecology.
Across every stage of his career, Dean’s work has been anchored in two consistent principles: uncompromising animal welfare and empathy‑centred support for learners and practitioners. He has extensive experience designing, delivering, and quality‑assuring programmes up to Level 6 in behaviour, welfare, rehabilitation, hydrotherapy, and applied sciences, with academic practice spanning assessment review, standardisation, moderation, and curriculum oversight.
As Research Lead at the Cross‑Species Institute, Dean is developing welfare‑centred research in canine HRV and comparative behavioural ecology with a clear translational aim: to bring scientific clarity into sectors where welfare decisions are often made without adequate evidence. His work focuses on generating practical, accessible insights that can influence industry standards, support policy development, and drive meaningful improvements in welfare‑critical environments. This reflects his long‑standing commitment to using science not only to understand behaviour, but to create change where it is most needed.
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