Gay puppy culture
Your go-to Guide for Unleashing the Handler Within
What is puppy play? It is the mental, physical and emotional process whereby a human takes on the role or persona of a dog. A human, often referred to as “hooman” in puppy slang, gets into the mental state (headspace) of letting go of their fears and inhibitions and simulates the characteristics of a puppy. There is a lot that is part of “puppy,” ranging from headspace to aftercare, gear, moshing and, most importantly, protection. All of this combined makes up puppy play.
Now, here is where we come into play.
Handling a puppy is fun, and the benefits to you as the handler are just as rewarding to you as they are for the puppy. People say that puppy play is what you make, which is true. Having said that, my way is not the only way to do things. I speak from the perspective of a handler/ trainer and my personal experiences in the community.
Our job as a handler is to let pups be pups while helping them to permit go of their human side.
Even though we need more handlers in our community, don’t be discouraged if you don’t possess one or
Last weekend, I was hanging out at the Cuff, the leather bar at 13th and Pine, when a man to my left pulled out a pink rubber ball. He held it up in the air, and around the patio half a dozen guys suddenly dropped what they were doing and turned to stare. He swayed his arm a few times, the men in front of him following every travel with their eyes—and then, with a quick flick, he tossed the ball into the middle of the crowd, provoking furious barks as they all clambered over each other, desperate to snatch the ball and return it to him, or maybe just retreat to a corner to blissfully chew on it.
This was the scene at the monthly mosh held by Seattle Pups and Handlers (SEA-PAH), our local puppy-play community. Surely you've heard of puppy play: It's surging in popularity among the gays, and, if history is any guide, will be surging among the straights in five years when we've moved on to something else.
Let's be clear about this. Puppy play means role-playing as a dog, down on all fours and barking, and yes, it's weird. Of course it is. But I know you're not the sort of person who uses
Pack Roles Part 1
In the Pups and Handler community, we find ourselves using a special arrange of words that, outside of the community, don’t acquire the same interpretation. This “jargon” becomes difficult to perceive when you’re teaching. Maybe you’ve heard of some of it already as it’s difficult to ignore.
The common terms you’ll run into are Handler, Alpha, Beta, and Omega. If you recognize anything about wolf pack dynamics, this might be something you’re familiar too. That or if you have owned a dog, you might have set up yourself being called a handler. Although that information can bleed over into the world of human pups, it’s not as jet and white as you’ll realize the more you mingle within our people. Soon, the words Handler, Alpha, Beta, and Omega will because you don&#;t know “what it means to you”.
Let’s first initiate off by stating this. There is always a education curve when you first start anything new and that is alright. By the end of these series of articles, we expect that it may clear up this set of jargon, and allow you to understand what it means when you hear these w
Interacting with Pups
by Sparky
The large event season is underway, from the large national events like IML to the local or regional events and contests. In all of these events, given how many boys have been finding their inner pup, you are bound to run into a pup or two… or dozens.
Nearly every pup I know that has gone out in headsacpe in public has some story of a poor experience. For myself the first time I ever wore my tail out at an event, MAL, a trip across the lobby floor left me with one sore ass from all the men grabbing my tail. What I hoped to be a fun night as a pup ended with a very painful removal of the tail and my ass off limits for a week while I healed. Too many hard yanks by packs of guys who felt they had a right to pull my tail. Mind you, it wasn’t the entire event’s fault, just a couple of people.
Still, was a lengthy time since I tried that again.
I have been collecting stories from pups out there with similar experiences; they gave me their impressions of what it was like to go to larger events like IML, MAL, MIR, Dore or Pride parades. Or their local le