Pet play is an umbrella for lots of different animal role-play, and usually falls into one of three categories: household pets, such as puppies and kittens, livestock animals, such as cows, pigs, and horses, and forest creatures, including foxes, wolves, and rabbits. Of these, pony and puppy play tend to be the most popular among both men and women, although the latter has its origins in the gay men’s Old Guard Leather community.
The Leather Community arose after World War II, when returning soldiers and sailors sought out a community that understood their experiences both as veterans and as gay men. Using the symbols and language of their military experience, leather clubs formed both in New York and San Francisco, and slowly spread across the country. Over time, a unified Leatherman’s Code evolved with a strict hierarchy among members, expected protocols to follow, and a heavy emphasis on sadomasochism.
Puppy play evolved out of the Master/slave relationships common within the Leather community. These dynamics often took the form of mentorship, with a slave submitting himself for initiation into the scene and subsequent instruction in the appropriate protocols of the community, with the possibility of graduating up and taking on the role of Master himself in the future. When a slave failed to live up to the standards imposed by his Master, the consequences were swift and could be severe:
“Punishment was a key component of training. Errors in protocol, or mistakes made in service, would be corrected by punishments designed to inflict pain or to humiliate. Being reduced to the role of dog was one possible punishment: a misbehaving boy would be compelled to drop to all-fours, forbidden to speak, to eat from the floor or from a bowl” (Lawson & Langdridge, 2019).
Over time, this combination of training and role-play evolved into its own unique subculture; separate from the leather community. The focus on humiliation and strict hierarchy faded into a more nurturing, caregiving dynamic. With the rise of the internet, more straight folks and women discovered puppy play and began to incorporate it into their own power exchange dynamics. The uninhibited physicality of puppy play allows kinksters of all stripes to embrace an aspect of their personality that they are often told must stifle and ignore in favor of being “respectable, mature, adults” – both in and out of kinkspace.
And play is powerful! Kinky people of all varieties refer to BDSM as “play;” but pet play carries the concept beyond sexual expression. Puppy play embraces genuine play: running and tussling, chasing and fetching, toys and tummy-rubs. This sense of playfulness is much more pronounced, and more akin to what we might watch children do on the playground than what adults do in a dungeon, which is wonderful- because it also affords these kinksters the benefits that Play Therapists have been discussing for years: community, stress relief, self-expression, exuberance, and of course: sensuality.
“You might expect a slave to be a worker, you don’t expect a dogboy to be anything more than a dog. The sexual dynamic becomes much more about how you would express affection to your pet, and what kind of rewards you give your pet when they have done well” (Daniels, 2005)
Puppy play is one of those kinks that often gives folks pause and makes them go “hmmmm.” And yet? Puppy play has a long and storied history within BDSM culture, as well as some really lovely benefits for those who enjoy it. If rubber tail-plugs and leather masks feel too niche for you to explore with your partner (or solo), that doesn’t mean that there aren’t elements of puppy play that can enhance your dynamic. Instead of breaking out the ropes, how about rolling around on the floor until you’re pinned down. Or maybe, after a really great blow job, consider reciprocating with a vigorous belly-rub and a loving “you’re a good boy!”
Stefani Goerlich is the author of the AASECT Book Award winning “The Leather Couch: Clinical Practice with Kinky Clients” and Certified Sex Therapist practicing in Detroit, Michigan.