The pup fetish is growing fast and many young fetishists dare to make their first steps in the kink community as human dogs. What’s it all about, what is the motivation and identity for puppies and doggies?
Power exchange, sexual stimulating humiliation and submission are elementary to BDSM, just like collaring in order to demonstrate a top’s possession of his sub. Those practices are well-established and accepted. Many folks, however, smile at the increasing number of puppies and doggies in the USA and Europe within the last ten years, their outfits and rituals. This may be due to the fact that the context in terms of sexual content of this fetish isn’t revealed straight away. I felt quite similar until I was asked to be a judge for the International Geared Up Pup 2017 contest. For this entirely virtual contest, there is no physical venue and thus, no travel limitations or expensive run packages to purchase. Any pup, worldwide, is truly capable of participating and presenting to the judges from all over the world. Image, playfulness, character and service of the human puppies were assessed and I gained insight into this evolving fetish.
The role as pup or dog is ideally suited for an access to the BDSM scene, because accessories are affordable and easily available in pet shops. Furthermore, pet play can be rather harmless in comparison to other BDSM role plays. The search for an own identity and role within our community can be especially hard for fetish newcomers due to the lack of experience and contacts. Being a human dog allows to try out certain things carefully and easy-going. Newbies are called puppy, the more experienced pet players are doggies. They often choose a breed which characteristics match their own, lime loyalty, obedience, reliability, patience or instinct. First goal is the exchange with other human pups and to meet an alpha dog, who knows the ropes. Next step is to find a handler for training, e.g. to fetch, to be leashed or to eat and drink from a bowl. Eventually, a puppy wants to find an owner who collars him, takes care of him and make use of his services. Apart from that, a pup wants to demonstrate well-behavior and obedience and intents to make his master proud. Everything is possible in a relationship between owner and pup and there are no boundaries, as long as the partners act safe, sane and consensual.
So what is the appeal of a human dog life? On one hand, as mentioned initially, it’s the desire of power exchange in a sexual relationship between a dominant and submissive partner. On the other hand, I recognized the motivation to escape human behavior for a certain time and to temporarily leave the worries of everyday life behind. “I need guidance in my life and sought a purpose to please men. Pups are just basic in their emotions, happy, fun, carefree and I wanted that. The hood takes all the human features away and helps me to communicate without words but use sounds and body language instead.” This statements sums up the attraction of being a pup. With hood, butt plug tail and on all fours, human dogs may achieve their headspace, i.e. the altered, ecstatic mental state allowing to blank out the surrounding.
While this fetish was widely unknown back in the 1990s, there are nowadays hardly any leather or fetish events without puppy playground, fetish retailers expand their product range with pup accessories and Mr. Puppy contests are organized in many countries. Some leather titleholders well known to me enjoy being a pup and stand up for like-minded people in public. This development is certainly justified, because human pups are looking for acceptance, understanding and belonging. Isn’t this very well known to all of us? For your next encounter, it is therefore appropriate to rub the pup’s head or belly and to respect his role instead of smiling at him…