The educational primer you need to know

What is pet play?

Pet play is a very unique and increasingly well-known subculture within the BDSM, D/s and Kink lifestyles. In simple terms, before we delve into the intricacies of animal play, it simply refers to one or more people acting as or Play as an animalYou pretend to be a certain animal and take on the qualities and tendencies of that animal.

Typically, animals play the submissive role in a D/s relationship, with the dominant being the human trainer or owner, but there are variations. Most notably, when animals do not have a trainer, they “play” with other animals or on their own. This is very common in puppy play, where a group of puppies will form a “group” and play together with or without a human trainer.

Common animals in animal games are ponies, dogs, pigs, and kittens – although there are many variations of these as well, and anyone can play as a specific animal they are associated with. Rabbits and cows are less common in animal games, but still exist.

Why do people like to play with pets?

Again, there are many reasons why this can happen, but we’ll look at two of the most common ones here.

A way to escape

First, the idea of ​​acting as an animal is seen as an escape. You can escape your human role, the daily struggles, and simply revert to some sort of animal mindset. Take a typical puppy, for example. Their only concerns are food, playtime, and time with their owner, and these are exactly the traits that come across when acting as a puppy. If you are seen as a cute and docile puppy or kitten, you don’t have to make sure the bills are paid or that you are responsible for cleaning the house. You can focus on and relax about the responsibilities of being a “mindless” pet.

Enhanced Characters

Second, animals are viewed as less than human, which in some cases can reinforce relationships of dominance and submission. Nonhuman pets are owned and completely dependent on their owners. The owner decides when to feed them, the owner buys them toys, and the owner decides if they need to wear those cute little clothes from the pet store.

Let others take control

Non-human dogs cannot drive themselves to the vet when they need medical treatment, they must rely on their human owners to do these things. The same applies to pets and animals in human role play. The dominant person or owner makes the decisions for them. There is also a humiliating aspect to this kind of play – being the non-human character, forced to eat from a bowl and be led around can be humiliating for some people, which may cause some arousal.

Everyone is different

Of course, these two reasons can be separated or combined. Someone who sees puppy play as a way to escape the world may not be keen on Dominance and Submission Lifestyle And only see it as a way to play and escape. It may not even be sexual. However, someone who enjoys the dominance and submission aspects may play once every weekend, once in a while, or their play may be more frequent.

From there, they may be asked to eat like a pet, or allowed to sit at the table like a human. Possibilities, involvement, and levels of animality vary. As with any form of kink and BDSM activity, involvement varies between individuals, couples, and communities.

How to start your adventure of becoming a pet

First, and this is the most important step, in order to begin the adventure of being the pet in pet play, you need to let your partner, significant other know that you’re interested in the idea of ​​pet play. We just read our article on kink and introducing kink to your partner, so you can probably get some ideas from that – but to do this, you need to figure out why you want to get involved in this kind of play.

What is your reason for doing this?

Do you need this as a way to escape, or are you really excited by the idea of ​​being dominated or having your partner submit to you? You need to have a long conversation about what this will entail and how you will negotiate it. It helps a lot if you have already tried kink and the idea of ​​bondage and submission, as pet play is just a short hop, skip and jump to the next aspect.

Take it easy

However, if you’ve never tried this kink before, you might have some trouble introducing it to your partner – which is why it’s important to identify the exact aspects of pet play you’re interested in and lay the groundwork for that. For example, if you want it to lead to dominance, then you might want to consider having either you or your partner take the lead in the bedroom and leave the pet play aspect alone.

Let your partner get used to this role before moving on to the next step, like introducing some pet toys, or introducing a pet character that you both can play with in the bedroom. This will make the transition easier to handle than anything else.

There are usually dominant and submissive roles

Most of the time, pet play will involve one person playing the role of the pet and the other person playing the role of the owner and dominant person. There are variations on this, especially when there are multiple pets (especially puppies), but this may mean you won’t have as much fun. It depends on your community, friends, and network. Once you get to the point where you want to discuss pet play, take your time.

One of the main things you discuss is your expectations for playtime. Does the animal/pet want to lounge around and act like a pet, or does it want to be active and annoying all the time like an overexcited pet? Do they want to be ignored and left alone most of the time, or do they want you to give them all your attention and love?

It’s a fascinating journey

It’s absolutely fascinating to explore this journey because once you peel away a person’s human responsibilities, you’ll be surprised at the truth behind it. As they play the role, their personality changes – a serious and proper girlfriend might become rambunctious and exaggerated like a kitten, while a quiet and docile boyfriend might become the life of the party like a puppy.

The journey itself is amazing and everyone’s experience is different – but it’s important to keep the lines of communication open because roles change over time, your commitment to the role changes over time, and there will be moments in life when you both need a break from roleplaying because there’s too much going on in life. It’s recommended to join a fetish community like FetiLife to find like-minded people who are interested in the same types of interests and desires.

By Stephen Smith – Bachelor of Social Sciences, Master of Educationsave

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Meet Stephen, a bold and outspoken cisgender gay man advocating for gender equality and sex education. Join him on the Adultsmart blog for bold insights.