Animal play

What is animal play?

Animal play is role-play in which at least one participant takes on the role of an animal. The best-known forms are puppy play, kitten play and ponyplay. Animal play can be sexual but does not have to be, and it stands apart from sexual contact with real animals.

What animal play looks like in practice

Animal play is about behavior, not costume. One person takes on the posture, the movements and the way of responding of an animal, and the other treats them accordingly.

In puppy play, the most studied form, that means crawling, fetching, walking on a leash and being rewarded. After in-depth interviews with thirty gay and bisexual men, Wignall and McCormack described in Archives of Sexual Behavior that pup play comes down to imitating canine behavior and taking on the role of a dog.

For most people, gear is part of it. In a later community survey of 733 participants, Wignall and colleagues found that the majority owned gear and wore it during play, and that participants used their own pup names and identified with dog breeds.

Where the forms diverge

Different animals give different dynamics, and that is why the scene keeps them apart.

Puppy play runs on playfulness, obedience and reward. Kitten play runs instead on willfulness: a cat comes when it feels like it. Ponyplay stands apart from both and looks more like sport or show, with a harness, high knees and sometimes a cart. The encyclopedia also mentions HuCow, in which someone takes on the role of a dairy cow.

What they share is that human language drops away. Someone playing an animal does not talk, and that changes how you agree on things and how you stop.

Why people do animal play

The appeal lies in the human role falling away. There are no words and no social expectations, and nothing has to be decided. You just respond to what happens.

Wignall and McCormack call this a headspace. They describe pup play as a sexual activity and, standing on its own, as a way to relax. In their interviews the majority of participants used pup play for sexual gratification, but the relaxing side sat next to that as its own thing.

• For the person playing the animal, the payoff is that nothing is expected of you that an adult is supposed to manage: no conversation, no performance. You don’t even have to answer.
• For the person who stays human, the payoff is in the caring, guiding role, with a counterpart who reacts honestly because they can’t talk.
• For a group, the payoff is community; the pup scene is strongly social, with its own names, breeds and meetups.

In the survey of 733 participants, most reported that pup play improved their mental health, but the researchers also found that a psychiatric diagnosis was linked to a more social style of play. That is a correlation, not a cure, and it does not make animal play a treatment.

Misconceptions about animal play

“This is about animals.” No. Wignall and McCormack looked for exactly that and write that they found no indication whatsoever for reading pup play as a form of zoophilia. The encyclopedia says the same: for most participants it has nothing to do with it.

“It is always sexual.” Also no. Both exist side by side, and for a large share of participants the relaxing, non-sexual side is the main thing.

“Petplay and animal play are the same thing.” Almost, but not quite. Animal play is the umbrella; petplay is the subset where the animal is kept as a pet. Ponyplay falls outside it, for instance, because a pony is trained rather than kept as a darling.

What I see myself

I enjoy role-play, and animal play is one form of it I get few questions about but see the most surprise around.

It almost never starts with the animal. The real start is the wish to not have to talk for a while. People who spend all day responsible for the conversation want an hour where that falls away, and a role without language is a direct route there.

The word, by the way, scares people off more than the act does. Someone who hears “petplay” pictures a full suit; what usually happens is that someone sits on the floor and leans their head against a leg.

If you’d like to explore a role like that with me sometime, you can do that within a BDSM date.

What you can do yourself

• Agree on how you stop without words. Someone playing an animal does not talk, so a gesture or a sound has to be fixed beforehand.
• Pick the animal first, then the rest. Dog, cat and pony give very different dynamics; start with the one that appeals to you.
• Start without gear. Posture and behavior do the work; a mask or tail is an addition, not a requirement.
• Watch your knees, wrists and neck. Being on your hands and knees for a long time is physically harder than people expect.

Read more about animal play

On this site, the article on sharing fantasies covers how you bring this up with a partner.

Beyond this site, the research by Wignall and McCormack is the first empirical work on pup play and still the best starting point.

Sources

• An Exploratory Study of a New Kink Activity: “Pup Play”. Liam Wignall & Mark McCormack, Archives of Sexual Behavior 46(3), 801–811, 2017. In-depth interviews with thirty gay and bisexual men; provides the description of pup play as imitating canine behavior, the concept of headspace, and the finding that there is no indication for reading it as zoophilia.
• Findings From a Community Survey of Individuals Who Engage in Pup Play. Wignall, McCormack, Cook & Jaspal, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2022. Survey of 733 participants; provides the use of gear, pup names and breeds, and the finding that most reported pup play improved their mental health.
• Animal roleplay. Wikipedia. The definition as role-play in which at least one participant plays a non-human animal, the overview of the forms including HuCow, and the finding that for most participants it has nothing to do with bestiality.

Related terms

• Ageplay. The same principle with age instead of species: a role that takes responsibility away.
• Owner. The ownership role that belongs to petplay and, unlike a handler, keeps running outside the play too.
• Handler. The role of the one who stays human while the other plays the animal.
• Kitten play. The subform where the cat is played, and where not listening is part of the role.
• Petplay. The branch where the animal is kept, with the keeper as the fixed counter-role.
• Primal play. The form animal play is most often confused with, even though no role is taken on there at all.
• Puppy play. The best-studied subform, with the figures on gear, roles and community.
• Role-play. The umbrella over animal play, with the other scenarios alongside it.
• Ponyplay. The third branch, where the animal is trained and judged rather than kept.