What is pup play?
Pup play is not a sexual practice. It is role play between adults: one person takes on the role of a pup for a while. The largest community survey, with 733 respondents, confirms this:
- 49.03% experience it as equally social and sexual.
- 22.5% experience it as mostly social.
- 4.42% experience it in an exclusively sexual way.
It is international and mostly from the United States, not Colombian and not a random sample.
The play
Whoever plays lets go of the human perspective for a while; play and instinct remain. No gear, mask or experience is needed.
A handler accompanies and looks after a pup during the play. A mosh is when several pups play together on the floor.
The headspace
The headspace is the mental state of the pup: attention stays in the present, worries go quiet.
Researchers describe it as similar to a physically active form of mindfulness. Similar, not the same.
Where it comes from
It was born in the gay leather scene in the United States after the Second World War and later separated from its strictly sexual roots.
Mental health
84% of the people surveyed, 616 of 733, say that pup play improves their mental health. It is a self-report, not a clinical measurement and not proof of effects.
A note on autism
One in two people surveyed scored above the threshold on an autism screening questionnaire; in the general population, roughly one in 44. A screening questionnaire is not a diagnosis.
In one sentence
Pup play is a state you enter to play and leave whenever you want, not something you join. That is what we practice at puppyevent Bogotá.