Being a pup means you are also a human being at the same time. You are never going to be fully transformed. However, as a human you have a wonderful tool to aid you to become a pup – your mind. Using your imagination and empathy you can embrace your animal urges and focus them into a pup experience that is often called pupspace or pupzone. The pupzone is not easy to attain, and needs practice and work like any other Pup skill. Here is your first exercise to help create pupspace and then I will explain some common misconceptions regarding it.
This first mental practice is called the “Curl up thinking” technique. This exercise is first done alone in a quiet room. After it can be great to do with another pup under the supervision of your trainer. Strip naked, or down to your underwear. It’s important to feel naked but not to be distracted by your arousal. Curl yourself up into a fetal position, making sure you are comfortable. Relax your breathing and close your eyes.
Become aware of your physical sensations. You may feel itchy. Be aware of your itchiness. Think to yourself – “Itchy”. Repeat the word, thinking it aloud, not speaking it, over and over, letting it be a drone until it fades. You will find your mind immediately notices another thing. You need to scratch? Repeat “scratch” the same way. Be aware of your body wanting to move. Repeat the word “move” when that occurs. You begin to get the idea, which is to train yourself to focus and immediately respond to what you are aware of and drone it out. Over time and with practice you will be able to do this exercise in a noisy public street. Right now though, be alone and quiet. This is a mental muscle you are training, and it will need workouts to strengthen. What you are doing is creating a bridge to pupspace within yourself.
This type of meditation is of course relaxing and helps you cope with stress as a human. It is also a default mode you can go to when you are confused or overwhelmed as a pup. Unfortunately many people coming to pup play misunderstand what pupspace is about. They simply ascribe being a submissive and wearing a hood and barking as being in the pupzone. That’s fine if you want to do that kind of thing, but the good human pup is not a player. He’s a doer.
Practice Curl up thinking every few days, in a quiet time and place. If you find after a short while you are relaxing and drifting off to sleep, then take a puppy nap.
