From one night at a club to a national pup institution — this week, Hide and Seek goes back to where the Australian Pup and Handler Competition began.
Jon and Joenas are joined by Pup Tycho, founder of the Australian Pup and Handler Competition, researcher, community organiser and one of the people who helped shape Australia’s modern pup and handler scene.
Ahead of APHC’s return to Boorloo/Perth, Tycho takes us back to the beginning: discovering pup play, stepping into community leadership and creating a national competition with little more than one leather contest, one book about IML and a determination to do things differently.
We unpack the ideas that became central to APHC — transparency, accessibility, affordability, safety and the belief that inclusion has to be something you do, not something you simply claim. Tycho reflects on wheelchair access, sensory spaces, keeping events financially accessible and why taking APHC around the country matters.
Then we follow the competition through its evolution: the frantic first year, its first interstate outing at Gear’d, Tycho receiving the inaugural Nipper Award from International Puppy and Handler Weekend, the uncertainty of the lockdown years, APHC’s post-pandemic return and the growth of an increasingly diverse Australian pup community. And with APHC now owned and run by the community itself, we ask what comes next. What should an Australian titleholder actually do? Where does inclusion still fall short? And if APHC is still going strong another ten years from now, what should its legacy be?
As Tycho puts it: inclusion is an active process.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode
Past Episodes
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Follow Tim instagram.com/beatzradio/
This episode was recorded on the lands of the Yalukut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung peoples. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
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