Daily Inspiration: Meet Kieran Hound

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kieran Hound.

Hi Kieran, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My community name is Kieran Hound and I’m a pup and pet player within the creative world of BDSM.

From birth, I grew up around a plethora of animals: dogs, cats, horses and snakes. As a shy kid and an only child, my family’s pets truly were my siblings and I spent most of my time when them when I wasn’t at school. They were my grounding energies and I loved how they could so expressively communicate without human language. I was fascinated by them and felt pure love and acceptance from them. They helped me orient myself in what I often found was a confusing and uncertain human world.

In my early 20s, I went to a Burning Man regional festival in Georgia and witnessed a person, decked out in beautiful leather costume harnessing, hitched up as a “pony” to a 2-wheel pony cart with two people sitting atop the cart and leading them around like it was a parade. It was funny and beautiful theatre of the highest degree and I was captivated by the artistry, care, playfulness and respect they embodied. When I asked what they were doing, they responded it was BDSM and this was their form of being playful in their relationship. I was smitten with the art form!

BDSM, also known as the “kink community,” has become my avenue for deep-seated creative expression. I am now in my 10th year of being a part of it. Through my costuming and getting into an “animal mindset,” I reconnect to my inner child that’s electrically charged with wonder, joy, spontaneity and love.

So often as adults, we can start to feel dull and tired by our adult responsibilities. “Pet play,” which is a subset of BDSM where people take on the costuming and mannerisms of various animals, is my joy practice… an art form that I can pick up anytime I need to re-energize my soul. It’s a way to channel the purest aspects of the animal spirit: love, loyalty, presence of care and silly energy! It truly feels like it cleanses the heaviness that I often accumulate as a responsible human doing day-to-day things.

In my play, I have been drawn to pup, pony and dragon as my favorite animal aspects…. different energies that I learned about and developed through my time in the Georgia and California BDSM communities.

My favorite play is “pup play”, where my community primarily knows me as Kieran Hound, a Doberman puppy character I developed. As Kieran, I enjoy serving a guard-doggo (often silly, sometimes serious when necessary!) and looking to keep my friends and community members safe. I’m also an educator on consent, safe play, accountability and helping to share my knowledge on how to be honestly authentic. I firmly believe that the more we honor our creative cores, the more fully we can show up to care for one another.

In 2021, I was named Los Angeles Pup 2022, which is a community-elected leadership title. For a year, I served as a BDSM leather community ambassador for pup play in Los Angeles, encouraging others to be creatively silly as well and hosting events. Earlier this year, I earned 3rd place at the International Puppy and Trainer Contest in Chicago. The international BDSM community is a huge umbrella where everyone 18 and older has an opportunity to express themselves creatively and with full heart. Everyone is welcome and it’s truly become a second family to me. I’ve found radically loving support and encouragement with the friendships and connections I’ve forged through it.

Ultimately, I love sharing my journey as a pet player because it’s brought so much joy, spark and love back into my life. I struggled deeply with depression and anxiety before I found it and I enjoy passing on the torch of its awareness to others, with the hope that others will rediscover their own inner lights through it and be easier on themselves.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Just like the creation of any road, it was both exciting and uncertain at first.

I compare it to the fun of exploring through the forest. There was no trail at first, but I loved the beauty of stepping into the wild unknown. There were pitfalls that I narrowly avoided… like meeting people early on who didn’t have the same awareness level of consent and community care. I’ve been sexually fetishized without my permission before, which isn’t a great feeling. Just because someone is dressed up in an exotic and unusual manner, doesn’t mean people have consent to approach someone in a lewd and disrespectful way.

But I learned through trial and error how to strengthen my boundaries, express what I like and don’t like, stand up for myself and others, and that process has made me a stronger and more well-rounded person. It’s made me a better negotiator in my “vanilla life,” which is a common term to use for daily non-kink life.

I’ve also known since I was very young that I didn’t fully fit into any one box of social identity growing up. Through the artistic realm of the BDSM community, I’ve been able to find inspiration to explore my sexual and gender expressions too.

I was marked female at birth and raised in fairly feminine traditional aspects, but I’ve found ways to incorporate the strength of feminine energies plus masculine and other nameless energies within my being. I’ve learned that we as humans are not binary robots, programmed from birth to one act in one-dimensional ways. I’ve been able to truly wax philosophically poetic about our places within the universe… and truly getting to see that we all are beautiful facets of life. I personally am genderqueer and bisexual. I love talking to people to encourage them that whoever they are and whatever they feel drawn to in life, it’s important to fully accept all aspects of ourselves.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a pet player and member of the BDSM community, I am proud of helping other people feel safe and encouraged in their own creative expressions. I am known for my spontaneous joy zoomies, as puppies are like to do at the drop of a hat (or squeaky toy!), spreading joy and laughter, and being someone that people can rely on for help or advice.

With a background in journalism, I’m also naturally curious and love to hold space for the stories of others. So often, people want to feel seen and recognized for who they are… and it’s an art to build space where people feel safe enough to share their vulnerabilities. Like an emotional support pup, I love being that safe energy that people can go to and feel restored around. With happy kinky tail wags and much encouraging love, woof! Don’t be shy to reach out a paw with any questions or to connect! Awoooo!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kieranhound
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pupkieranhound/
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kieranhound
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np00lPjFYLo&t=1052s
• Other: https://linktr.ee/kieranhound

Image Credits
The first four images (white background and black background), plus the first photo uploaded with white background: Liam Jäger. Last one with Grey background: Miguel Gonzales Jr. Other Photos: Courtesy of Kieran Hound