Dogging has been around and taking place a lot longer than most people imagine, we interviewed twelve members from dogging after dark, the website has been on the internet since 1999, however all the members we spoke to claim to have been involved in dogging since 1990.
It would appear there is a great deal of confusion regarding the whole concept of dogging in the UK, and most people who try to get involved in this hugely popular sexual pastime are under the impression that all they have to do is pull into a dogging location and they will instantly see couples having sex in and around their cars. Quite honestly this is a total myth, along with flashing of headlamps, brake lights and interior lights.
Dogging in the UK really does seem to have a whole social lifestyle attached to it, and a lot of members will simply meet up to chat and drink coffee, exchange tips on local beauty spots and just general meet and chat with friends old and new. It would also seem apparent that dogging is “waiting game”, you can’t simply expect to pull into a car park and see or get involved in any sexual activities within minutes or hours of arriving, and more often than not you will need to be extremely patient and visit the same spot for several weeks and sometimes months before you are lucky enough to get involved with others.
The people involved in dogging appear to be a very close knit community and it can take a newcomer a long time to be spotted and accepted by them into what is a whole social community. Rather than the whole myth of flashing lights and trying to do various discreet signals, it would appear it is simply a case of getting out of your car and striking up a conversation with other people waiting in the same car park.

We spoke to several members of After Dark who say more often than not they will visit a dogging spot several times over a period of several weeks before they actually make an plans to engage in any activities, it can take several weeks or months before they feel comfortable enough to engage in any sexual activity and they spend time evaluating the location and what people come and go and different nights.