Designing technology mediated human-animal interaction with the animal welfare as a design goal calls for understanding of animal welfare issues. This paper discusses the notion of animal welfare and specifically focuses on domestic dogs (canis familiaris) as an example case. Strategies for mediating relatedness are discussed and an initial framework to support designing tactile interactions for human-animal interaction is presented. Paper builds its reasoning upon scientific research on human-animal interaction and welfare, and identifies issues for future work in this area.