Second Collar Training - Interaction

The first rule of pup interaction you learnt in FCT Interaction was that pup play contains no moral or value judgements. There is no right or wrong like there is in human society. There is only a balance in which all things are weighed and considered. You must think of the consequences of each action, and deal with those consequences.

That last statement is at the heart of the moral approach to pup play. Consequences are foremost in your mind pup when you make decisions. At every moment your choices result in something happening for you or your Owner and Trainer. Even other pups are affected by the consequences of your choices. It is a responsibility, and it comes with the collar.

The process by which you make decisions, how you choose, is a negotiation with the "other" present, and it culminates in a moment of doing. The "other" can be another pup, your Owner, your Trainer, a spectator, or simply anyone else. You will make decisions in pupspace using the process which we refer to as Interaction.

Pup play works on the idea that you and the "other" are engaged in a constant struggle for dominance. That jostling for dominance can be between yourself and another or within a group such as the pack. At this point many pups get lost and take the wrong track as they assume canine and pup play can cross over easily here. It would appear to do so on the surface, but directly copying canine behaviour will lead to shallow and eventually meaningless results. Dogs have a range of non verbal communication that is not applicable for humans, even when those humans are assuming a dogs existence. By pretending to be a dog and engaging in dominance games, a pup is going to play at it abstractly despite it seeming immediate and real to them. They simply cannot engage using humans senses for the non verbal cues and instinctual behaviour. Many pups try but the emotional investment and pay off in that process is much less than what it would actually be if they tried another path.

Though humans engage in struggles for dominance, their jostling for status and rank in human society is almost always achieved through negotiation. Humans have evolved, using language and their own thinking, a very different approach to canines. Where a dog would know there place in a pack fairly easily, most humans have multiple ranks within their social context. In fact, we can start the day dominant (putting the children off to school) then subordinate (following the line to the bus and train) then we are at work, where much of the time we struggle with different choices and are dominant and sometimes submissive. Humans can and do operate in a vastly more complex social context of "pack" on a daily basis. As a pup you will enjoy the simplicity of role, but your human mind will determinedly get involved, no matter what you wish, to eventually add much more to the simple canine roleplay. Humans utilise and constantly develop methods of status and rank that are fluid and complicated.

In human pup play we will rely on a form of interaction known as 'transaction" as the basis for pup play and action. To transact simply means to exchange something. Like any form of negotiation, a transaction in pup play works as a process in which you, or the "other", offers something, expects something in return, and it is either accepted or rejected. It is very simple. Of course humans tend to make this process abstract and conceptual (you have heard of money right?), and the process can be prone to errors of misreading of what is going on. Particularly when we add the rules of consequences as we discussed above.

An example of this can be someone who has sexual attraction for and wants to have sex with a friend, but is not able to "offer" their body and heart for sex (and "demand" it in return) because they are afraid that if they put the moves on their friend they risk damaging the friendship. In fact, a friend could easily lose "status" and be rejected and alienated for their actions. So it's about calculating the risk to reward before acting on their sexual desire. In order to make an "offer" of their desire and affection, the desiring friend has to feel so passionate and horny that they feel it's worth the risk. Or the risk would have to be reduced, say by giving hints that an amorous overture won't be rejected.

As a pup you will keep it simple. You will offer something and make a demand. The "other" weighs up what it will cost him to fulfill this. If it balances, if it seems a fair exchange, then the "transaction" goes ahead. If it doesn't balance right, the negotiation continues. Your Trainer might make a demand of you, while offering you something in return. You must consider what it means to take what's on offer and what it means to comply with the demand. Unlike some forms of BDSM, in this pup play, both sides have to exchange and get something out of it.

The offer is what I am prepared to to give you; the demand is what I expect in return. We understand and accept the consequences.