Yoga and puppies? What an odd pair, right? But if you're looking for the opportunity to hone your yoga skills alongside a free-roaming group of puppies, Pets Yoga is the place for you. Pets Yoga was the first yoga club in the UK in 2018 to introduce Puppy Yoga, Kitten Yoga, and Bunny Yoga.
Pets Yoga aims to provide a stress-free environment by combining yoga and pets' companionship. It's not just the well-being of the guests being taken care of but also the well-being of the pets by allowing them to learn to socialize with people, which builds their confidence in readiness to enter the outside world.
First off, my overall experience with Puppy Yoga was great. It was indeed fun to play with puppies while doing some stretches. Incorporating the yoga sessions with pets cuddling is very stress-relieving.
The session starts with time with the puppies because that's what most people's main purpose for going there is and the one they're really excited about. All puppies are invited to the session through reputable breeders and charities. As such, Pets Yoga is simply puppy daycare because the puppies are just there to play all day and then come back home to their loving family at home at the end of the day.
It was definitely more focused on playing with the puppies than it was a yoga session. And as part of the socialization process of the puppies, they are allowed to roam free, tease, and cuddle with the guests.
Please note that if you have long hair and braids, the puppies will think it's a toy and try to pull at it. But they are just puppies, so it doesn't hurt that much. Pets Yoga also imposed an age limit for the guests for safety. The age limit is 6 years, and children from 6 to 16 years old must be accompanied by a guardian.
Moreover, you could take two approaches to this fun experience - thinking of it as a yoga class and play with the puppies when they come by; or you could go into it, play with the puppies and do a few stretches and have fun when the puppies come near you when you're stretching. I think most people would go for the latter between these two approaches because puppies are cute and irresistible.
On a side note, the staff did an excellent job of ensuring that everybody gets equal time with the puppies and gets a lot of puppy time. They would bring some of the puppies to us alongside plenty of toys to choose from for playing with the puppies.
During the session, I witnessed plenty of funny moments. For instance, puppies would get on top of people while doing yoga poses. The puppies were quite curious about what was going on and got very excited around the people playing with them. I can say that puppies also enjoy the session because of their excitement to run around and play together with people.
In the end, I felt genuine happiness as I saw the people and the puppies around me hanging out and playing with each other. I mean, who could refuse the cuteness of the puppies?
