What is pup play?
You show up, say hi and for a while stop answering emails. That is pup play: role play between adults where you take on the pup role. It is not a sexual practice. Woof.
Dropping the human head
In the role the human perspective goes; play and instinct stay. No gear, mask or experience is needed.
A handler stays close and looks after you while you play. When several pups play together on the floor, that is a mosh.
How it feels inside
That mental state has a name: headspace. Attention rests in the present and worries fall silent.
Researchers compare it to a physically active kind of mindfulness. Alike, not the same thing.
The numbers
The largest survey of the worldwide pup play community, with 733 respondents, paints this picture:
- 49.03%: the social and the sexual weigh the same.
- 22.5%: the social side leads.
- Only 4.42% experience it in an exclusively sexual way.
Mind you: the survey is international, mostly from the United States, not Colombian and not a random sample.
84% of those surveyed, 616 of 733, say pup play improves their mental health. That is a self-report, not a clinical measurement and not proof of effects.
One more finding: one in two respondents scored above the threshold on an autism screening questionnaire; in the general population about one in 44. A screening questionnaire is not a diagnosis.
The roots
Born in the gay leather scene of the United States after the Second World War, it later moved away from its strictly sexual roots.
The short version
You enter to play and leave whenever you want; it is not something you sign up for. That is what we practice at puppyevent Bogotá.