Pup and Handler Pride Flag
Puppy / Pup-Play / Leather and Kink Subculture Flag ·
A diagonally striped leather-palette flag for pups and handlers, charged with a red open hand reaching toward a red pup head and hood. Tycho Aurora, also known as Ashley Kahurangi, designed it: it first appeared in 2016 and had its major public debut at the inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition in 2017. [1] The pup head is drawn so that "you cannot tell what gender or sexuality is that", and the hand is drawn so that neither side looks in control of the other. [1] Its rights language is split: the creator's own library labels the flag public domain, while the designated usage page still asks permission for commercial, event and modified uses. [2][3]
Key facts
- Designer
- Tycho Aurora (also known as Ashley Kahurangi)
- Created
- Major public debut
- Documented circulation
- 2016 onward
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Ratio Notes
- The archive shows the standard production ratio. The published file is a different shape: PupPlay.Info's own image is 1024 by 683 pixels, about 3:2, and no file from the designer at another size has been located. That is the proportion of the surviving artifact and is not evidence of an intended specification. [4]
- Stripes
- 7
- Origin
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Represented Identity
- Pups and handlers
Also known as
- Pup-Handler Pride Flag
- Pup/Handler Flag
- Tycho Pup-Handler Flag
Archive categories Subculture Pride Flags
Overview
To separate pups and handlers from the leather flag they had been taken for. The history gives that reason directly: the stripes were made thicker "to help separate from the leather pride flag as they have been confused as the same during pride events". [1]
The flag first appeared in 2016 and had its major public debut at the inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition in 2017. Tycho Aurora describes it as "the next evolution to a flag that can represent pups and handlers", keeping the stripes and the red of the earlier pup flags while adding two new elements: a pup head "that you cannot tell what gender or sexuality is that", and "A guiding hand to represent handlers in the community without looks like any side, pups or handlers are controlling the other". [1]
Identity & Context
- Represented Identity
- Pups and handlers
- Subcommunity
- Pup play / pet play / kink
The design's stated intent is not limited to gay men: the pup head is drawn so that gender and sexuality cannot be read from it. [1]
Creators
The Creator
Tycho Aurora
Designer
A New Zealander living in Melbourne when he wrote the pup flag history in June 2017, a professional game designer, and at that time a head pup of VIC-PAH, the Victorian pups and handlers group. He runs PupPlay.Info, which publishes the flag and administers permission for it, and also writes as Ashley Kahurangi. [1][2]
Original appearance in 2016 but its major public debut was at the Inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition in 2017 was designed as the next evolution to a flag that can represent pups and handlers.
From the flag's own section of the pup flag history, 19 June 2017. The sentence is reproduced as written. [1]
While keeping respect of the evolutionary path of previous versions with keeping the stripes and the red pup bone color codes and a nondescript pup head that you cannot tell what gender or sexuality is that .
The design rationale in the same paragraph, reproduced as written. [1]
A guiding hand to represent handlers in the community without looks like any side, pups or handlers are controlling the other, giving the spirit of individuality and being yourself as primary focus.
The explanation of the hand, reproduced as written. [1]
The redesign of the horizontal stripes to be thicker were also designed to help separate from the leather pride flag as they have been confused as the same during pride events.
The stated reason for the stripe widths. [1]
Motivations
- To give pups and handlers a flag of their own rather than a leather flag read as theirs, with a pup head drawn so that "you cannot tell what gender or sexuality is that" and a hand drawn so that neither pup nor handler looks in control of the other. [1]
Stated inspirations
- The earlier pup flags, from which the design keeps the stripes and the red used for the pup bone.[1]
- The Leather Pride Flag, which the thicker stripes were meant to distinguish the design from after the two were confused at pride events.[1]
Attribution
- Organization
- VIC-PAH (Victorian Pups and Handlers)
Attribution notes
Tycho Aurora, who also publishes as Ashley Kahurangi, designed the flag and wrote the community history that documents it. Writing in June 2017 he described himself as a New Zealander then living in Melbourne, a game designer by profession and a head pup of the local VIC-PAH group. [1] Those are the circumstances of 2017 and are not claims about where he is or what he does now. His own public-domain library lists the flag as "Public Domain - Designed 2016". [3]
Origin
- Country
- Australia
- Region / state
- Victoria
- City
- Melbourne
- Place Type
- city
Melbourne is recorded as design context: the source documents that the designer was living there and leading a Melbourne pups and handlers group in 2017. It does not record where the flag was drawn. Melbourne is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong/Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. [1]
Indigenous land context
Colonial / settler context
Melbourne, Australia, is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong/Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation.
Melbourne is recorded as design context, not as a place of design. The source documents that the designer was living there and leading a Melbourne pups and handlers group when he published the flag's history in June 2017, and that the flag's major public debut was at the inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition. It does not say where the flag was drawn. [1]
Dates & Chronology
- Year Created
- Major public debut
- Documented circulation
- 2016 onward
- Creation Bounds
- The community history gives three separate dates: first appearance in 2016, major public debut at the inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition in 2017, and the public-domain release for use as a flag in March 2017. The debut is not the date of design. [1]
PupPlay.Info publishes the flag, administers permission for it, and states that it "has been given permission to moderate and enforce copyright" of the design. [2] A circular rendition of the design and a rainbow rendition are published on the same pages. [1][2] Beyond the 2017 competition and PupPlay.Info's own use, no named organisation or event has been documented flying it.
The history page carries a comment from Pup Flip Gray, posted 11 August 2018, about a different flag: the 2011 Puppy Pride Flag of the International Puppy Competition. That comment is the source of the nine-stripe count, the thirty-degree angle, the white stripe at one and a half times the width, the Keith P. boy flag precedent, the centred red bone and the colour values RGB 23,23,150 and 235,38,41. Those describe Flip Gray's flag, not this one. [1]
Lineage
- Direct predecessors
- Leather Pride Flag, Puppy Pride Flag
Two relationships are documented and both come from the designer's own history. The design keeps "the stripes and the red pup bone color codes" of the earlier pup flags, which is what places the 2011 Puppy Pride Flag behind it, and its stripes were widened specifically to distinguish it from the Leather Pride Flag, which is a relationship of departure as much as descent. [1] The history names no single predecessor, and the thirty-degree angle and the boy flag precedent that once appeared here belong to a reader's comment about Flip Gray's 2011 flag.
Lineage tree
Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 3 records across 3 generations.
- Ancestors -2
- Leather Pride Flag
- Ancestor
- Puppy Pride Flag
- This record
- Pup and Handler Pride Flag
Colors & Symbolism
The hand and the pup head are the whole of it. The hand stands for handlers and is drawn so that neither party looks in control; the pup head stands for pups and is drawn so that gender and sexuality cannot be read from it. [1]
| Colour | Hex |
|---|---|
| Black | #000000 |
| Blue | #2E3192 |
| White | #FFFFFF |
| Red | #ED1C24 |
Measured from the published file [4]
- Open hand, reaching from the hoist
- "A guiding hand to represent handlers in the community without looks like any side, pups or handlers are controlling the other, giving the spirit of individuality and being yourself as primary focus." [1]
- Pup head and hood silhouette, at the fly
- "a nondescript pup head that you cannot tell what gender or sexuality is that". [1]
- The red used for both
- Carried over from the earlier pup flags, whose "red pup bone color codes" the design keeps. [1]
No meanings have been published for the individual bands. The history explains the stripe widths as a practical matter, separating the flag from the Leather Pride Flag at pride events, rather than as symbolism. [1]
No palette was published with the flag. These four values are measured from PupPlay.Info's own 1024 by 683 image, which is the file shown here and which reads as these four fills with the neighbouring values around each shape produced by antialiasing. [4] Permission granted through the usage page comes with "an official vector file with the raw graphic for you to have accurate color", so exact values exist and have not been published. [2]
Design
- Aspect Ratio
- 3:5 · standard
- Ratio Notes
- The archive shows the standard production ratio. The published file is a different shape: PupPlay.Info's own image is 1024 by 683 pixels, about 3:2, and no file from the designer at another size has been located. That is the proportion of the surviving artifact and is not evidence of an intended specification. [4]
- Orientation
- diagonal
- Stripe Count
- 7
- Layout
- stripes_with_emblem
- Stripes (Top → Bottom)
- Blue, Black, Blue, White (about 1.5 times the width of the others), Blue, Black, Blue
- Center Symbol
- An open hand reaching from the hoist toward a pup head and hood silhouette at the fly, both in red
Seven bands are visible in the published file, read across the stripes from the top-right corner to the bottom-left: blue, black, blue, a wide white band through the centre, blue, black, blue. The bands run diagonally, descending from hoist to fly at about 32 degrees below the horizontal, measured on the source file as a slope of 0.636. The white centre band measures about 1.5 times the width of the others, 222 pixels across against 147, and the outer blue bands run off the two far corners. There is no bone on the flag. [4]
Diagonal bands in the leather palette of black, blue and white, with a widened white centre, charged with a red hand and a red pup head. The designer's stated reason for the widths is separation from the Leather Pride Flag rather than symbolism. [1][4]
Seven diagonal bands descending from hoist to fly at about 32 degrees, in the leather palette: blue, black, blue, a white band roughly half as wide again as the others through the centre, blue, black, blue. Across the centre a red open hand reaches from the left toward the silhouette of a red pup head in a hood, facing left, on a shoulder line.
Usage & Adoption
- First Users
- Inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition (2017), the flag's major public debut [1]
- Organizations
- PupPlay.Info, which publishes the flag and administers permission for it [2]
- Geographic Usage
- Australia
- Online Usage
- PupPlay.Info, which hosts the flag, the usage conditions and a circular rendition [1][2]
- Event Usage
- Inaugural Australian Pup and Handler Competition (2017) [1]
- Current Status
- published and administered by PupPlay.Info; documented use beyond the 2017 competition not located
One documented event, one documented publisher. The usage page's categories imply wider use, describing flags made from the design, graphics on pup play support-group sites and non-profit pages, merchandise, and recurring events, but it names no organisation or event that has done so. [1][2]
Image Archive
The Published Flag
Discourse & Debates
- The flag is distinct from the 2011 Puppy Pride Flag, which represents puppy play generally. This one foregrounds the relationship between pup and handler, and its history says the stripes were widened so that pride crowds would stop reading it as the Leather Pride Flag. [1]
Common misidentifications
- The flag is regularly described as carrying a red bone at its centre. It carries a red hand and a red pup head, and no bone. The bone belongs to Kirk "Brue" Pierce's pup bone flag and to Flip Gray's 2011 flag, both of which are covered on the same history page. [1][4]
- A nine-stripe count, a thirty-degree stripe angle, a Keith P. boy flag precedent and the colour values RGB 23,23,150 and 235,38,41 are frequently attached to this flag. They come from a 2018 comment on the history page describing the 2011 International Puppy Competition flag. [1]
- May be confused with the Leather Pride Flag of 1989, which shares the palette and which this design was widened to distinguish itself from. [1]
Pup play, or puppy play, is a form of role play in which one participant takes a puppy role and another acts as handler. "PAH" stands for pups and handlers.
Footnotes & Citations
Sources and footnotes 4 sources
Articles & Reports
- 1. History of Pup Pride Flags. Tycho Aurora. PupPlay.Info (2017-06-19). Accessed 2026-08-16
Written by the flag's designer. It covers four pup flags in sequence, and its comment thread carries a 2018 note by Pup Flip Gray describing the specifications of the separate 2011 International Puppy Competition flag.
Official
- 2. Pup Pride Flag: usage conditions. PupPlay.Info. Accessed 2026-08-16
The permission page the history links to. It hosts the flag image and sets out which uses are free and which require asking.
Designer page
- 3. Public Domain. Ashley Kahurangi. ashleykahurangi.com. Accessed 2026-08-16
The creator's own library, which lists the Pup and Handler Pride Flag as "Public Domain - Designed 2016" and lists the Pup and Handler Emblem separately under different conditions.
Image file page
- 4. APHC-Large-Flag. Tycho Aurora. PupPlay.Info. Accessed 2026-08-16
The flag image published on the usage page, 1024 by 683. The colour values, band count, stripe angle and relative widths recorded here are measured from it.
Image Sources
- Rendering
- PupPlay.Info's published image
- The flag as PupPlay.Info publishes it, at 1024 by 683. The archive's copy is pixel-identical to this file. [4] · Credit: Tycho Aurora, also known as Ashley Kahurangi. Published by PupPlay.Info. · PupPlay.InfoRights PupPlay.Info states it has been given permission to moderate and enforce copyright of the flag, and lists which uses need permission. The creator's own library lists the flag as public domain.