Queensland Pup & Handler Competition 2018 Review

I’d like to start off by thanking Taylor Cook (Tycho Pup – Handler) for the opportunity to write this for the Puppy Community archives, fresh off of the back of Q-PAH’s very successful Inaugural Queensland Pups and Handlers Competition (QPHC) for 2018.

Secondly, I need to give a huge shout out to our amazing sponsors. Wayne Nicol – Sax Fetish, Derick Young – Army of men, BJ – Eagle Leather, Poney Quarterzarne – Black Rabbit, Neil McLucas – The Sportsmans Hotel and finally Jordan – Wruff Stuff. Without your generous donations of time and funds in the way of prizes & goods, events such as these would not be as successful as QPHC18 was.

Walking away with the title of Queensland Pup 2018 has me so very excited to see what I can do for our beautiful and rapidly-expanding corner of the Australian Kink community. In essence, the entire QPHC event ran as smoothly as you would expect an inaugural event to run. Minor things such as mics cutting in and out during shows did very little to hinder the running of the show, with our amazing MC’s Gayleen Tuckwood – Miss Sportsmans Hotel 2016 and Scott Lovegrove – Mr QLD Leather 2017 rolling with the punches to still bring the crowd an entertaining show.

Our judges for this year : Head Judge : Wayne Nicol from Sax Fetish Bee Bishop – Ms Sydney Leather 2015/16 and Current Pup Panther – Australian Pup 2017 / QLP 2017, James Davidson – Aust Leathernan 2018 Jan Thwaites from the Queensland Aids Council and our competition Adjudicator – Tim Roberts QLB15

These wonderful beings had arguably one of the more difficult jobs of the weekend – the QLD Puppy and Handler talent was fierce and out in force. One talent section that warrants a special mention was Pup Hex’s use of a Drag Queen role playing as a Damsel in Distress. The entire crowd was in tears of laughter – it was great.

Balls Out Bingo – Pup Edition was a great success, though I may be a little bias as I was given the opportunity to be a “ball boy” for the 2nd half of the show. It’s quite exhilarating being up onstage in nothing but your hood, pointing out your next victim to drop their pants!

Arguably on of the more nerve-wrecking parts of the competition, as it has always been with other Title Holder Competitions, were the interviews. Standing in front of 5 people that you know and hold a great amount respect for is always at least slightly intimidating. The Speeches, The Talent Sections and the Pup & Handler Interaction section all brought out the best of all contestants. I was in absolute awe of the other Pups and Handlers that got creative with their time, with a plethora of talents on display. These ranged from Precious stones 101 all the way to a Handler getting flogged on stage.

My pup and handler Interaction included my fiancé, who has a set of keys I can hear from a mile away, testing my sense of hearing. I was blindfolded, then he shook one set of keys that weren’t his, then shake his set of keys and I had to choose. If I got it wrong, I was flogged. To up the challenge, we finished off with a game of Marco Polo, with him hiding in the crowd and I would have to find him based on where the sound was coming from. More than one laugh was had when I ran into multiple people/ chair legs/the bar. But I found him, and the crowd loved it.

Ultimately, while there were minor hiccups, as there are with all first events, I’m prouder still of Pup Skout and the rest of the organising committee of how quickly and beautifully they overcame and adapted to these problems. There will be a SWOT analysis done on the event as a whole, so I can say with excitement that 2019 QPHC can only be bigger and better and I can’t wait to be a part of it again!

Yours in treats & skritches, Pup Lief Queensland Pup 2018