Derix first tried on a pup hood—his is black with a red muzzle—five years ago. He remembers wearing the hood, point doberman ears and all, outside the house for the first time as nothing short of transformative. “At first, I was terrified,” he remembers. “I was with my friends, but you're getting all these looks.” As a self-described introvert, that kind of attention made Derix hesitate. “But after 20 minutes, you get used to it,” he says. “You realize it doesn't matter what these other people think.” For Derix, that night was a revelation. “I instantly saw that first night—things melt away.”
He still thinks of himself as an introvert, but when he puts on a pup hood—that’s a different story. Anonymous behind the mask, he feels more confident, more gregarious, and more relaxed. The alter-ego started with a new name; a pup name. “You choose your name, I have Derix,” he says, “and all of a sudden you have the opportunity to fine tune your identity.”
The ritual of the hood is an important part of the process. “it's just a different kind of alter ego that I can switch into if I need to chill out or be in a certain mindset,” Derix says. “And that's the great thing about having a hood: it's a very like mechanical trigger for that.”
Pup play is about more than wearing a hood, Derix says, but to understand what it is, you’ll first have to understand what it’s not. Namely: pup play isn’t pet play, and for Derix the distinction is an important one. “a lot of people merge them together,” he says. If you’re into pet play you might want to be walked on a leash, or dig a hole in the yard. But pup play is a bit less literal. Instead of pretending to be a dog, it’s more of “a light persona, something you can slip into. But, you know, I'm not necessarily barking all night,” Derix says.
Derix is, as he describes it, a “dumb himbo dog,” and while he’s usually dominant on camera, the pup hood is a way for him to get submissive too. “I take commands. I don't think that much. Yeah, you just get stupid,” he says.
But his pup play persona exists outside sexual situations as well. He’ll wear the hood out at bars, or even just hanging around with other pups. “Obviously, you take it off to eat and stuff,” he says. “but it's just comfortable. You're in this persona, and things get a little bit lighter.”
If you’ve been pondering the pup life, Derix would probably tell you to stop thinking so much, throw on a pup hood and try it out for yourself. “You don't need an excuse or justification,” he says. “If you are curious for a consistent amount of time, that’s your cue.” The only way to find the version of pup play that works for you is to take a swing—so go ahead, order the hood, and discover your pup persona.
