International Puppy Contest History of Human Puppy Contest

International Puppy was established by founders Flip Gray and Joe Mastrapasqua in November 2011. Bruce Taylor who had been helping establish IPC since the beginning was added as an owner in 2015. The mission of International Puppy is to help the human puppy community grow and to hold an annual International Puppy Contest to show the best of the best human pups from around the country and around the world. It’s more than just a one weekend annual event, it’s a daily, year-round effort to bring the puppy community together. We are working hard to promote education, understanding, opportunity and friendship to pups new and old.

The International Puppy Contest was created in 2011 to fill the 7 year void left after the International Puppy and Trainer Contest was replaced by the International Puppy and Trainer Conference (IPTC) in 2006 which held educational classes and demos instead of contests. IPTC was later retired in 2010 (see IPTC farewell Press Release). International Puppy tried to contact the former producers of the retired IPTC in hopes of continuing it but received no replies. After seeing several messages posted publicly by them stating they were not going to change their minds about retiring IPTC, we decided to create our own contest. It was originally designed to be a local Leather Puppy category for the Tampa Bay LeatherSIR and Leatherboy Contest which quickly became the model used by many other puppy contests around the nation. After the initial announcement for the Tampa Bay Leather Sir/boy/puppy Contest, feedback from puppies outside the Tampa Bay area and outside the leather community required it to rapidly expand to be pansexual and include all puppy breeds (leather, rubber, etc.). To avoid the confusion and conflict caused by being part of the local leather contest, it was decided to make it a separate contest open to all puppies internationally regardless of breed, gender or location.

After announcing we were now going to be an international contest, we were contacted by one of the former co-producers of IPTC inquiring why we were not continuing the retired IPTC legacy. International Puppy is all about puppies, our focus is not about trainers or handlers, it is about puppies and giving puppies with or without owners or trainers a place to show off, have some fun and earn a title at the same time so we decided not to attempt reviving the retired IPTC which focused on puppy and trainer couples.

No details about the retired International Puppy and Trainer Conference or their abandoned International Puppy and Trainer Contest could be retrieved from any public resource as all of their domain names were expired and all of their websites were taken down. Very little information could be found about International Puppy and Trainer Conference at all in the Leather Archives so Pup Flip Gray and Master Joseph Mastrapasqua of Puppy Graphics, LLC created a new contest from scratch using the existing Tampa Bay Leather SIR/boy/puppy contest as a model, registered it in the state of Florida as dba International Puppy and filed for a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

We immediately started helping puppies around the world organize their own groups and contests and the puppy community grew at a rapid rate confirming the need for new contests, events and awards dedicated entirely to the puppy community.

We wanted to create an event that was controlled and organized for puppies by puppies in a way that didn't depend on only one or two individuals to ensure it could survive the test of time so we changed International Puppy from a DBA to an LLC and added additional owners. We feel we accomplished that goal and what we feel Patrick Chees (aka Nipper) and the Lone Star boys of Leather, creators of the first International Puppy Contest, originally envisioned for puppies in 2001.

We always looked forward to meeting all the human puppies, handlers, trainers and their admirers at the International Puppy Contest (IPC) during the annual International Puppy Weekend (IPW) events!

After the death of Joe Mastrapasqua, the remaining International Puppy, LLC owners Pup Flip gray and Jaeger Pup T, decided to dissolve International Puppy, LLC and to cancel the 2019 IPC Weekend event as well as the International Puppy Contest. This effectively completed the IPC merger with IPTC, which in the end was to going to result in only one International Puppy instead of two anyway and hopefully help unify the puppy community.

Unfortunately after IPC was canceled in 2019, IPTC held their final contest later that same year.

Additional background Info:
In October 2016, during Beyond Vanilla in Dallas, the owners of both the International Puppy Contest (IPC) and the International Puppy and Trainer Contest (IPTC) – after a series of friendly discussions and in the interest of cooperation - jointly announced their intention to bring the two contests together under one weekend event. To go forward from that announcement, a joint advisory committee was formed to handle the logistical needs of event planning. Said committee was to be comprised of the owners and producers from both contests. As the planning progressed, and to demonstrate the cooperative spirit in which the two contests were coming together, the committee agreed to bill the event as International Puppy and Handler Weekend (IPAHW).

From the outset, the initial concept of IPAHW was to cover two (2) years. The first of the two planned annual IPAHW events was held in St. Louis in July 2017, with International Puppy Weekend (IPC) hosting IPTC and opening the weekend up to the newly formed IPAHW event. The second IPAHW event was to be held in Dallas in July 2018, with IPTC hosting IPC during Beyond Vanilla. However, during the 2017 event, the producers of both contests and the advisory committee realized IPAHW was already bigger than the venue for Dallas in 2018 could hold. Thus it was agreed to host the second IPAHW event in St. Louis in July 2018.

Any official talks of an actual merger between IPC and IPTC were to begin after the conclusion of the IPAHW event held in 2018, which was the second of the two IPAHW events. This had been agreed upon to allow time to ensure that the two contests and their supporters were enough in alignment to support such an action. It was generally agreed, from the start in 2016, that a full alignment and possible merger, would take 3 to 5 years and would be not be finalized until 2019-2021.

Notice:
The original two (2) International Puppy and Handler Weekend (IPAHW) events held during 2017 and 2018 in Saint Louis, Missouri were the only two (2) IPAHW events International Puppy LLC (IPC), a Florida company, produced, funded and was financially responsible for. (see press release below)

The 2019 IPAHW (IPTC) and canceled 2020 IPAHW (IPTC) events in Indianapolis, Indiana were produced, funded and the sole financial responsibility of International Puppy and Handler Weekend LLC (IPTC), an Illinois company.

Master Joe Mastrapasqua and Mitch Hixson

Joseph Mastrapasqua - Executive Producer International Puppy Contest
Master Joe was one of two owners of Puppy Graphics LLC, co-owner of I nternational Puppy LLC and Executive Producer of International Pup and Handler weekend. He was the Web Master, Member and former President of The Tampa Leather Club. He was the Founder of Florida Leather n Fetish Pride (FLaFP.com). He was married to Mitch Hixson and they were together since November 2000, they have been Pup Flip's owners since 2009. Joe was in the Tampa Bay area since July 2000 and was active in the leather community in P-town, MA, Phoenix, AZ and Tampa, FL since 1986.

Master Joe Mastrapasqua was taken off life support and passed away on September 6, 2018 after battling lung cancer that had spread to other parts of his body.

For several months, day and night he fought for every breath he took and tried to suppress the uncontrollable coughing each breath would bring.

He couldn’t lean back or put his swollen legs and feet up or he wouldn’t be able to breathe, even though he was on oxygen. He had to sit in his chair, leaning forward, feet down and his greatest wish was to simply be able to lie down in a bed again. Medications couldn’t stop the back and chest pain caused by the constant coughing. His legs were so swollen and heavy he couldn’t walk more than a few feet without sitting down to rest.

BUT he never gave up and he never gave in.

However, the lack of sleep and the physical pain and stress took its toll and was finally more than his body could take. He had to be placed on life support, hoping it would give his body time to heal enough that he would be able to start chemo and radiation treatments. In the end his body could not fight anymore. His organs started shutting down and they had to stop the life support. He passed away peacefully within a few minutes after life support ended.

The puppy community and the leather and fetish communities have lost a great leader.

Human Puppies have been a part of the Leather & Fetish community for years. Below are links to other sites that we recommend checking out for more information and resources about human puppies.

International Puppy Contest ™