HUMAN DOG TRAINING

Were practitioners of sm into training their slaves to behave as dogs twenty years ago? Though more commonly encountered (mainly due to practicalities) than pony training, with which it shares a number of similarities, I cannot remember coming across it at that time. I had seen an example of it – there is a scene in the notorious movie Pasolini made of de Sade’s "120 Days of Sodom" ("Salò,"1975) which places it in an sm scenario. Some twenty young teenagers, both male and female, crawl excitedly up a grand staircase, collared and leashed, and into a room where they are thrown meat, eat from dog dishes, and bark and pant for the pleasure of their aristocratic Masters and Mistresses. I cannot recall whether I found the scene erotic – little was in the context of that cold, analytical study of Fascism and power politics. It is interesting, nonetheless, that I can recall that sequence more vividly than any other in the movie. I also remember, in the early 80s, seeing a production of a play called The Witch of Edmonton (by Middleton and Rowley, contemporaries of Shakespeare) where the Devil goes about his work in the shape of a dog – I do definitely recall my sexual thrill at the sight of a full-grown, fit and muscled man, collared and crawling on all fours.

Mr. Benson, in the eponymous novel by Larry Townsend, subjects his slave to a tiny degree of dogtraining – just for humiliation purposes; the central character in The Brig becomes a dogslave for a time, also as part of a humiliation process. But probably the most extensive coverage in gay erotic literature came with the publication of Kai’s story in Manifest Reader. This purported to be a true story of how a young man in his 20s gave up all human ways to live as a dogslave for some five years, all forms of human behaviour denied to him. He describes vividly how this helped him to move into a submission which was liberating for all its fixed constraints. I have been assured that this account is essentially true. However, it represents an an experience of such intensity and focus that it is likely to be viewed essentially as fantasy by most of us.

Now, suddenly, dog training is everywhere. There are a number of sites on the Web given over to the subject and offering personals from all over the world and newcomers to this erotic practice should start there. I find that, no matter where subs get hold of me, I’d go so far as to say that easily 75% of those I meet and interact with are looking for dog training to form part at least of the session. And increasingly I meet subs who want this form of activity to the exclusion of all else.

I’ve been there too though I came to it rather late in my time as a sub. Years ago I was introduced to it by a former (canine!) dog handler in the police force. And to be frank I came to believe that the reason he drew on his former professional work was that for him it represented an acceptable way of showing affection to another man. Formerly married, and having lived a deeply closeted life, it represented a way of displacing his feelings of shame and guilt for wanting to have sex with men. For my part I found it exhilarating and liberating. It loosened me up physically and mentally and through it I believe I managed to tap into a greater degree of instinctive, submissive behaviour than I had ever done. For one thing it demands more in the way of interconnectedness than the classic Master/slave role-play. As a Top, one of my perpetual moans and gripes concerns what I call the ‘zombie’ slave – that is, one who endures passively and stoically what is done to him, who provides no feedback during a session, one who is robotic in performing what is asked of him, who believes that passivity is the same as submission. Faced with this type of sub I will quickly introduce him to the special pleasures of dog training.

For the dogslave, unlike the ‘zombie’, is decidedly active whether this arises from physical games like ‘fetch’ or simply in terms of constantly working to give the impression of canine behaviour. A dog may be trained to obey and strictly controlled especially through the use of a leash but spontaneous, dog-like behaviour is always welcome. Training a dogslave results in a bond of affection between Master and dog which many subs, especially young and inexperienced ones, desperately need. That the dog is valued is taken for granted, no matter at what a low level. All too often as a sub I found myself in situations where it was easy to forget that sm is an expression of love – that rarely happens in dog scenes. A real dog, as domestic pet, must be the only animal that apologises if you happen to step on it – step on a dog’s tail and it will yelp or whatever but also look hopefully at you and wag its tail to ascertain whether you are angry or not. They want, above all else, to please - 'slaves' and 'subs' duly take note and learn! In return, they want to be loved, petted, rubbed by their Masters. So, too, do the human kind. A dog’s tongue is generally the most expressive part of a dog’s nature – dogslaves should get a charge not only from licking boots but also hands, neck, face or wherever the Master allows them. The result is frequently a more sensual scene than other scenarios I explore.

As we all surely know, one man’s sexual fantasies are another man’s belly laugh and practitioners have to accept that training humans as dogs is more likely than most activities to appear ludicrous when viewed objectively. As always, it is the mind which produces erotic possibilities. Because, let’s face it, a man, no matter how much he is decked out with dog collar, butt-plug tail, eared and snouted mask or various costumes ranging from rubber or lycra body suits even to furry dog costumes, looks anything but a man constrained to emulate a four legged animal. His legs are too long, his face too flat to be wholly convincing. The imagination must provide the reality.

Part of the appeal, inevitably, is humiliation. A sub is dehumanised, made to crawl instead of walk, his hands (whether in bondage mittens or free) rendered useless, his speech removed from him to the extent that he must work on a range of vocal colours possible within a highly constricted, non-human vocabulary. A tail, even though few I have seen are ‘effective’, adds to this. The pleasure moves beyond that of humiliation, however, by opening up a vein of instinctive behaviour that in many cases allows the sub to express himself and his need for submission more directly than he might do as a human slave. A sub, coming to it for the first time, is often embarrassed and self-conscious. I tend to work on this – initially by suggesting that they need not fear me laughing at them because I have done it all myself - and subsequently by working through a ritualised initiation which marks their transition. I admit I am particularly fond of initiation scenes – a kind of solemn ceremony whereby the sub is transformed. For me ‘transformation’ is what sm is all about and I have found that nothing in this line works so well as dog training. I like to take my subs on a journey of exploration of my needs and theirs that ideally will break through all inhibitions and liberate the psyche from the responsibilities of mundane, every day life.

Little is needed to get started in dog play. A collar is central to this as it is to most slaves. I like to attach a dog tag with a dog’s name and my telephone number on it. Even though I have never been in a situation where it is ever likely to be of use, the jingling of a tag as he moves always subtly reminds a dogslave of his status. There are also chain training collars, some with fearsome ‘teeth’ available in pet stores but these should be avoided. A dog has a stronger neck than a human and as a long-time devotee of metal bondage I have always been very aware of safety factors in using metal around the neck. A leash is similarly an essential – and a relatively cheap item of equipment. A dog bowl is a useful item to add to your erotic toys but choose carefully as a human mouths can generally not get to the bottom of such bowls. These are the basics, perhaps with the addition of some canine toys – a ball, rubber bone, dog biscuits. Dog food from a can should be avoided for health reasons and certainly in terms of long sessions of days or weeks. Let the mind do the work for you in this respect – I buy a can of cheap steak in gravy, strip the label off and then make a performance of opening the can and spooning it into the dog bowl.

Those wanting more refinements can investigate the variety of tails increasingly to be seen or improvise with a butt-plug, wire and rubber tubing. I have also seen effective head harnesses with a dog’s snout and ears though, as is the case with a tail and the practicality of shitting, such a contraption has to be removed when feeding is involved. Kneepads such as those used by skaters and skateboarders are useful for extended work on all fours, especially on a carpet, but they are awkward and tend to slip about. A cloth lightly bound around the knee is generally more practical. Bondage mittens, as I have suggested, reduce the hands to paws though improvising with bandages works just as well. I have also seen highly complicated sets of straps binding lower arm to upper arm, and calf to thigh, forcing the slave to stand on elbows and knees but obviously such a position can be held for a limited amount of time. Getting your sub into some or all of this gear is the vital first stage of the process of transformation. You should talk him through it, explaining why this is being done to him. His mind needs to go down and a step by step process of transformation seems to work.

The second stage is forcing him into doglike positions. The most common is the ‘walk’ position with hands and knees on the floor but always remember that a human’s muscles and limbs are crucially different from those of a dog. I use this position for short movements to and from me. Anything involving more – moving to another room perhaps and certainly when negotiating stairs – is better done with the dogslave, hands on the floor, back raised, and moving on the balls of his feet. You have to respect the compromises that have to be made – no matter how un-doglike it may seem, the only way for a dogslave to descend a flight of stairs is backwards, looking up – any attempt to do it as a dog would, facing downwards, has danger built into it. For extended dog play a rest position which allows a full stretch is essential. The ‘sit’, ‘heel’, ‘beg’ and ‘sleep’ positions are obvious but training can move beyond taking him through these positions at a word of command to non-verbal communication such as a snap of the fingers or certain gestures. The advantage of this latter is the focus and concentration that the sub must bring to it, thus ensuring his fullest involvement.

The third stage of the process is the release of the animality of the dogslave’s behaviour in terms of body language and vocal skills. Encourage him to draw on his experience of how dogs behave, how they cock their heads, demand with a paw and so on. Self-consciousness often appears with uttering animal noises but don’t let him away with the first sound he makes. Work on it, deepen it, colour it and by doing so build up a vocabulary that is recognisable to you both. A Master and dogslave who know one another well can often impress more conventional Masters and slaves by the powerful, unspoken sense of communication that is virtually undetectable to onlookers.

Within the boundaries of dog play, certain variations are possible, often depending on the sexual fantasies of the players. Is your dogslave a family pet, a hunter (work on his sense of smell), a guard dog fierce to outsiders but wholly obedient and affectionate to you? Know others into the same play? Then get them round and see how your dogslaves will interact. Remember that there are no rules – how many men fuck their canine pets? – but there is nothing to stop you fucking your dogslave. Or doing all sorts of things that one would never dream of doing to a real dog; straps and metal around balls, chastity devices, tit clamps have all found their way into my dog training sessions. Punishment can vary in intensity; it can be no more than a few taps with a rolled newspaper but again there is nothing to stop you giving him a full-scale beating.

If a sub can overcome and accept the inherent ridiculousness of his position as dog then he often develops far more quickly than he might otherwise in a more conventional role-play scenario. It allows him to be submissive just as it allowed my first Trainer to be affectionate. Dog play can and does work as a powerful metaphor for submission and in my experience works faster in terms of releasing that submission than any other form of sm play. I hope it is not just here to stay but to become increasingly popular for it is underpinned by affection, trust, a desire for communication and respect for the offering of a rare vulnerability – essential ingredients of any good session for me.