The phenomenon of couples, almost always men and their wives, almost always in their late twenties on up to the fifties, training dogs (usually big dogs) for sexual purposes, is both fascinating and disturbing.
Such activity is minimal, and secret, and it exists almost exclusively in the "swinger" area of middle-income, bored, mate-swapping, jaded, thrill-seeking people in large cities and their suburbs.
In Beauty/Beast, Vol 1, Roger Blake supports this view: "From my own research among swingers and wife-swappers who have sex-parties today, some of which are almost on a par with the fabled Roman Orgy, bestial acts are the latest in fad. During the ten or more years that swinging and mate-swapping have become so widespread and popular (almost paralleling the 'sexual revolution'), I have noticed that they always seem to be looking for something different. It seems, at times, that many of them are obsessed by what they feel is 'the attractiveness of evil.'"
A historical note might be added here, for perspective. Allen Edwards and R.E.L. Masters, in their The Cradle of Erotica mention: "Historically, bestiality has commonly been put to more therapeutic uses in the West, especially as a remedy for venereal diseases (to which end it is also employed by Muslims). Europeans have further attempted by bestiality to cure cases of satyriasis and nymphomania. And aging males, brooding regretfully over their declining virile powers, have also sought to find in intercourse with various beasts an improvement of their potency – a search sometimes crowned with temporary success, since any novel erotic act may in some cases, and for a time, revive flagging appetites and capacities."
Within the "swingers" there is an inner, exclusive group of "super-swingers". Those who, for complex emotional reasons, will try anything and are attracted to the idea of sexual relations with an animal, the dog being the most handy and easily trainable.
As the following interview shows, the "doggie training" couples are not easily discouraged and count it as a mark of pride and accomplishment to have a disciplined, well-trained dog.
It takes months to properly instruct a dog in his sexual duties, and persistence and dedication is required of its owners.
In The Animal Lovers it is stated: "The Rosenfeld survey reveals that the majority of female bestialists prefer dogs, both for sexual intercourse and for cunnilingus. A California woman told me: 'Properly trained, a dog can french a woman much better than a man. For one thing, his tongue is larger, and a dog seems to enjoy the actual taste of the secretions… often he (her poodle) – will french me for as long as an hour!'"
The interview below came about as the result of misdirection; I was interviewing a couple about their wife-swapping activities and attitudes, when the husband let slip something about their dog – a beautiful, full-grown German shepherd – who was lying at his wife's feet, watching me alertly.
The wife colored slightly and said, "If you're going to tell him about that, I'll leave."
She was calm but uncomfortable. I was not a close friend, actually almost a stranger, and not someone with whom she herself could immediately talk so honestly and openly.
I knew the husband fairly well, though. He grinned and winked. His wife left and he went into the other room to talk to her for a minute, then returned.
It was okay to tell me about it but not in their apartment. She didn't want to be "in hiding" in the bedroom while he gave all kinds of intimate details to me.
But it was alright to go over to my place for the questions and answers. As he described her attitude later, in the car, she was willing for him to tell me everything about her and Khan and himself, but she couldn't bear to be present. I wasn't "one of us" and while I could be trusted (she knew me by reputation mostly), she still didn't have the sangfroid required to sit with me and talk about it herself, into a tape recorder. An understandable attitude.