Post: #1

I'm speechless...

The men who live as dogs: 'We're just the same as any person on the high street'


Spot at home with his former fiancee Rachel.

Quote:It’s easy to laugh at a grown man in a rubber dog suit chewing on a squeaky toy. Maybe too easy, in fact, because to laugh is to dismiss it, denigrate it – ignore the fact that many of us have found comfort and joy in pretending to be animals at some point in our lives. (really? I think not - CP)

Secret Life of the Human Pups is a sympathetic look at the world of pup play, a movement that grew out of the BDSM community and has exploded in the last 15 years as the internet made it easier to reach out to likeminded people. While the pup community is a broad church, human pups tend to be male, gay, have an interest in dressing in leather, wear dog-like hoods, enjoy tactile interactions like stomach rubbing or ear tickling, play with toys, eat out of bowls and are often in a relationship with their human “handlers”.

In the documentary, we see Tom, AKA Spot, take part in the Mr Puppy Europe competition in Antwerp, a mix of beauty pageant, talent show and Crufts; David, AKA Bootbrush, talk to camera in a leather dog mask; two pups walk through London pretending to wee on lampposts to raise awareness of their identity; and lots of men jumping up for “treats”, barking and wagging their mechanical tails.

When I speak to Tom, he is keen to point out that puppy play is about more than just outfits and surface-level power games: it’s about being given licence to behave in a way that feels natural, even primal. “You’re not worrying about money, or food, or work,” says Tom, who works as an engineer in a theatre. “It’s just the chance to enjoy each other’s company on a very simple level.”

Spot, Hexyc and Tibo

Quote:Tom’s discovery of puppy play came about gradually. He knew he liked sleeping in a collar, had a fetish for skin-tight clothing – Lycra, rubber, even off-the-peg cycling shorts – then came a dalmatian zentai suit he found on eBay, a £1 orange lead from Pets at Home until, eventually, a man in a club walked up to him and said: “Oh right, so you’re a pup.” The realisation was not without its repercussions: it led to a breakup with his former fiancee Rachel and a move into a gay relationship with his new handler. Colin.

“I wouldn’t say it was the catalyst, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says Tom. “Then I had this moment of panic because a puppy without a collar is a stray; they don’t have anyone to look after them. I started chatting to Colin online and he offered to look after me. It’s a sad thing to say, but there’s not love from the heart in me for Colin – but what I have got is someone who is there for me and I’m happy with that.”

For David, a writer who works in academia, puppy play is an escape from the analytical world. “It’s so totally non-verbal,” he tells me. “It’s pre-rational, pre-conscious. It’s an instinctive, emotional space. But within every puppy is a person. This is part of my identity, but it’s only part. I’m also a vegetarian, play the piano; I have a parrot. I was planting tomatoes on my allotment this morning. I can go months without going into pup space.”

The psychiatrist Carl Jung argued that our conscious minds contain intuitive, emotional, sensation and thinking archetypes. Are the sort of men drawn to puppy play simply exploring their intuitive self? “Absolutely,” says David. “Puppy play is exactly that – play. There is an immense amount of pleasure from gambolling around in a club playing with squeaky toys because you’re making people laugh, you’re being a cute little puppy. The gay scene can be very serious, scary and offputting. But if you’re going in with a little puppy hood, ears and a tongue, you look cute. You’re allowed to bound around and be enthusiastic, mischievous and friendly.”

Quote:Kaz, another pup, argues that for some, being a puppy isn’t just a fun mask to try on – it’s how they identify; it’s who they are. “Even when I worked in PC World I would sometimes walk up to people and nip at their shirt” he says, laughing. “I got in trouble once; someone walked into the PC repair centre and I had part of their dad’s computer in my mouth. But the other staff knew I was like that to everyone. They didn’t find it weird.” , For Kaz, pup play can be summed up in the phrase: “Be dog”. He will socialise as a pack, enjoy physical closeness with other pups and always eats out of a dog bowl at home. “It’s just nice, it makes me feel comfortable,” he explains, before adding “But I always eat with a knife and fork and at a table. Otherwise it’s time-consuming and you can’t watch TV.”

What is the attraction, for pups and their handlers? “You are trying to grasp the positive elements of the archetype of the dog; the loyal companion,” says David. “Some pups are solo, of course, but for me the puppy identity is focused on the bond between me and Sidney, my handler. I’ve been collared to him for 10 years. If anyone comes near him I growl like a little bull terrier. And I’m a people-pleaser in my human life. I get a great deal of pleasure from making other people happy.”

Then, of course, there is the sex. Puppy play is often part of a larger sexual practice that crosses over with leather folk, furries and BDSM. But, as Kaz is keen to point out, not always. “People automatically jump to the conclusion that this is gear we wear to have sex. I used to get asked awful questions like, if I liked having sex with dogs. But it’s certainly not that, and it’s not always sexual. Members of my pack, we spend a lot of time together at home just being dogs. There’s nine of us and my partner is our handler. A big part of it is a feeling of family and belonging; we’re there to look after each other.”

Whether we see it as a kink, an identity, a reaction to an early experience, a form of escapism or a fetish, the main thing, says Tom, is that we see it at all; that we know it’s there and accept it. “It feels like you can be gay, straight, bisexual, trans and be accepted,” he says. “All I want is for the pup community to be accepted in the same way. We’re not trying to cause grief to the public, or cause grief to relationships. We’re just the same as any other person on the high street.”

Post: #2

Mad dogs are traditionally treated with a little lead in the ear.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #3

Skeletor says it better than I ever could.

Post: #4

I like to make girls scratch my back while laying in bed. Does that make me a human-pup?

Post: #5

Vanity Fair cover story: Meet Fido Jenner.

Post: #6

This is what happens when society gets too comfortable. The crazies aren't weeded out.

Post: #7

That said, note this from the article:

Quote:When I speak to Tom, he is keen to point out that puppy play is about more than just outfits and surface-level power games: it’s about being given licence to behave in a way that feels natural, even primal.

This is, in essence, repressed masculinity. Tom has been that browbeaten into repressing his natural impulses as a male that the only way he can get over his cringing fear of being an assertive man the only way he can feel natural is to impersonate a canine.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #8

Why the fuck did I open this thread instead of getting my Asian fix instead?

Post: #9

Google - Neo Nazi Furries...

Post: #10

(05-26-2016 03:00 AM)CynicalContrarian Wrote:  Google - Neo Nazi Furries...

I will not.

Post: #11

So I take it they demand to take a dump in the middle of public and if you don't let them you are a bigot.

Post: #12

As very young boys, they heard their single mothers exclaim, "Your daddy was a damn dog!" And their childlike mind took it literally.

Post: #13

(05-26-2016 03:35 AM)Scoundrel Wrote:  As very young boys, they heard their single mothers exclaim, "Your daddy was a damn dog!" And their childlike mind took it literally.

Post: #14

If they believe themselves to be canines.
All the while they're clearly damaged & broken.
Does it matter if they're 'put down'?

Post: #15

Hopefully there are still at least 10 good men left in Sodom and Gomorrah.[/align]

Post: #16

Saw this last night, most of it at least.

After the laughing and the pointing, and the "what the hell?!?!" I felt incredibly sorry for these men. Clearly they are damaged and repressing past trauma that they think regressing into an animal state will shield them. For many of them it seemed more of a slave/master/BDSM thing, but there were a few who genuinely seemed to find identity in it. Tom/'Spot' (the Dalmatian) in particular seemed a very sad figure, who was tearful at only finishing third in 'Mr Pup Europe'. Clearly this means more than a hobby to him.

At the end the interviewer goes to Tom's house where he lives with his (ex?) wife. He's sitting on one sofa tending to his dog suit, her on the other. Up until now she's made a show of laughing it off, letting him do his thing, etc, but the interviewer asks her if she and Tom would still be together if it weren't for the 'pup' thing. She immediately struggles to hold back the tears as she thinks of what was and could have been with this man she clearly still loves but has lost to this 'pup' identity. Meanwhile he's sitting on the sofa stroking his fake dog mask, happy and utterly oblivious to her pain. Very sad.

I suppose the Internet enables so many of these fetishes or whatever you want to call them to arise. Before then you just wouldn't be able to meet others and share your perversions so they'd either fizzle out of at least remain internalised, but now you can find an instant community online for anything your mind can conceive of, so it perpetuates the perversions and degeneracy. Then of course once a community has formed then there's money to be made by selling them what they want and the perversion is cemented.

Then they're going to push for rights, just like every other group.

Post: #17

Well we are animals aren't we... and I like getting a good scratch. Why not pretend to be a dog?!

Post: #18

(05-26-2016 02:58 AM)Suits Wrote:  Why the fuck did I open this thread instead of getting my Asian fix instead?

Because it's less gay than this thread.

Post: #19

When I say bitchmade, I mean their mamas probably were nagging bitches who destroyed their normal thinking processes and also that they're gay, dressing like dogs, that get buggered like dogs.

This is crazy. Not worth the analysis, nor the attention.

Post: #20

This is my favorite thread title in a while.

Post: #21

I'm gonna go take a shit in the middle of the airport dog park because I now identify as a dog. I'm transspecied.

Aloha!

Post: #22

(05-26-2016 02:02 PM)Kona Wrote:  I'm gonna go take a shit in the middle of the airport dog park because I now identify as a dog. I'm transspecied.

Aloha!

Well, this is the logical end game of all this nonsense. Once you remove the 'trans' barriers it goes from just staying away from the occasional bloke in a dress like in the good old days, everything can now be 'trans'-anything. Who are we to police what someone identifies as? Anything goes!

Until the Muslims take over and you won't even be allowed to be trans-religious, that is.

Post: #23

When the Muslims try to take over, the guys who scared them off by dressing up like dogs and pigs will be laughing at us.

Post: #24

Dare I say it..... we need another World War.

Post: #25

Jesus Christ.

10/10 this thread fucking delivered

The first step to transpecies relations is to emulate it.