Hobby trend dog mask: So-called puppy play is becoming more popular. It attracts attention, sometimes outrage, and can confuse – even politicians and the police. Time for an approach.
Their hobby? Playing dog. So-called puppies – named after the English word “pup”/”puppy” for puppy – know that many people giggle at their preference. Some are also outraged, saying it is perverse. This summer, mostly younger men wearing leather or neoprene dog masks can be seen at Christopher Street Days, for example. What is it all about? Time to take a closer look at a phenomenon that has already brought the police and politicians into action.
Pup play is a role play. In recent years it has become a more visible phenomenon – for example in social networks and at queer parades and festivals. Human pup play, however, is now mostly desexualized and courts (or perhaps better: barks) for recognition and inclusion in the queer scene and society.
Playing dog as a hobby
“The hobby of pup play is about putting yourself in the role of a dog and imitating its behavior,” says ethnologist Konstantin Mack, who wrote his master’s thesis on the subject at the University of Würzburg (“You’d have to be a dog – cultural anthropological perspectives on pup play”). “To put it bluntly: they are adults who enjoy chasing a ball on all fours in their free time.”
Many pup players wear masks, collars and leashes to make it easier to get into the dog’s role. One of the attractions is to create your own dog character – with an individual personality and matching accessories. “In Germany, the first clubs were founded or regular events were launched around six years ago, and the scene has been growing ever since,” says Mack, who is now a doctoral student at the Institute for European Ethnology at the University of Vienna.
“An almost meditative state”
The so-called headspace is central to pup play, explains Mack. “This is how puppies describe how they feel when they are completely absorbed in their role. For many of them, it is an almost meditative state because their thoughts and actions are only focused on what puppies like to do.” This includes playing, chasing balls, growling, getting scratched, and annoying their owner. Everyday worries are blocked out during play.
Mack estimates that the community in Germany has a high four-digit number of people, and including Austria it is “certainly” in the five-digit range. In most medium-sized towns and cities in German-speaking countries there are regular get-togethers, although experience has shown that only a fraction of the people who practice take part. Many simply pursue this hobby on their own or primarily online.
The history
Historically, as Mack explains, pup play goes back to the 1940s and 1950s, when the leather scene developed in the American queer community. At that time, role-playing games between (human) dogs and their masters, known as “handlers,” emerged. This was often combined with sadomasochistic sex.
“Over the decades, this shifted, so that the playful joy of putting yourself in the shoes of a puppy became more and more important,” says Mack. To this day, most puppies are gay. This can probably be explained by the historical connection to the leather, lacquer and latex scene. But fundamentally, pup play is not tied to gender or sexual orientation. Puppies can be male, female, non-binary, gay, lesbian, bi, straight or even asexual.
How sexually connotated is pup play?
Does the whole thing still have much to do with sex today? Mack says: “For the vast majority, pure role play, i.e. activities with other puppies, is a purely social activity – a hobby, like acting or swimming. Reducing pup play to sexual acts does not do justice to the complexity of the scene; the focus is on the social aspect and playing together.” It’s about living it up, discovering new things, questioning social norms and getting to know like-minded people.
This is precisely what a former dog player finds strange. “It bothers me that it is sold so easily these days,” says Thomas (44) from Berlin (dog’s name: Gary). “Dog play has become a kind of club-based activity – with uniform and often far too expensive masks. Instead of proudly calling it liberated sexuality and perverted kink.”
Puppies and the police
The trend phenomenon has already caused some trouble. In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, the question of whether pup-play masks at Christopher Street Day were an expression of free personal development or prohibited disguise was even discussed in the state parliament last summer (this would be the case if wearers wanted to use them to prevent their identity from being established for the purposes of law enforcement, for example).
In response to a query from the SPD, the black-green state government made it clear that this must always be examined on a case-by-case basis. If masks are not prohibited by criminal law or the right of assembly, one may also take part in a demonstration wearing a mask.
There is no ban on fetish masks “for aesthetic, political or moral reasons”. The reason for the inquiry was a mask ban by the police at the CSD in Recklinghausen as well as similar incidents in 2019 in Aachen and 2018 in Essen.