Yoga with pups might seem like an adorable daydream, but two businesses in New West have come together to make it as real as a pooch’s hard-to-say-no-to look.
A new fitness class promises to have puppies wandering around your yoga mat while you try a standing forward bend. In this 60-minute guided session, you are free to break away from a pose to pat the pups who nuzzle up against your feet.
“I think one of the best benefits (of the yoga class) will be playfulness — to feel the inner child and bring that inner child out. It’s kind of like what we teach in our aerial yoga class… where we swing in a hammock,” said Oxana Kirsanova, founder of the newly opened Sea2Sky Wellness Club, where the session will be held on May 6.
“We often forget how to play as we are so drained by routine commitments; we simply forget how to relax and enjoy. Animals keep us in the present moment and make us smile. And when we smile, that triggers different hormones in our brain.”
In that sense, yoga with dogs, said Kirsanova, is quite similar to the more-popular therapy with dogs.
Kirsanova will be organizing the session along with Kierin Lund, co-founder of Wonderpup Academy, a pet-training centre that’s a two-minute walk from Kirsanova’s wellness social club.
Lund got the idea of having a pup yoga session in New West from the Vancouver-based Pups Yoga studio; a discussion with her store neighbour and fellow entrepreneur, Kirsonava, convinced Lund that it’s possible to have little paws step on foam yoga mats if the two businesses joined forces.
Together, they launched the puppy yoga session — featuring puppies from Wonderpup Academy and yoga expertise from Sea2Sky Wellness Club.
Fitness with Fidos
The idea of puppy yoga isn’t new — as per Kirsanova's research, it was introduced in the early 2000s in Europe. “At first, people were just doing it for fun. And then it became really popular because people noticed a lot of benefits to it.”
At the New West class, participants will get to share their yoga practice with three two-year-old puppies — Beijo, Enzo and Benji.
The pups are right in the end of their puppy stage and into adulthood, said Lund, who raised them. “But they still are like puppies in their personality,” she said.
“They’re very playful. They like to be cuddled and petted. They don’t mind if you want to pet or touch them. They’re so used to that,” she added.
“People lay on them, lean on them. It’s all fun. They get excited from the energy of people, but not overly excited that they’re jumping up on people.”
The “wonderpups” have been part of paint nights and game nights in recent months at the pet-training centre. The yoga session will just be another social event for them, said Lund.
As for the participants, the intention, said Kirsanova, can simply be to play and have fun with the dogs.
“If the dog is coming to you, why wouldn’t you welcome it? Why wouldn’t you stop what you’re doing and take a moment to pet the dog?” she said, confirming that participants wouldn’t have to worry about doing “crazy headstands.”
But if someone wants a more "disciplined" yoga class, Kirsanova suggested they sign up for one at the studio that offers hot yoga, hot yin, power flow and more.
The pup yoga, meanwhile, is a good fit for those who want to balance asanas with cuddles, those who would like to get over their anxiety around dogs, or families who want to see how their kids respond to the presence of a pup before adopting one.
Whatever be the reason, the class invites everyone to settle down on their mats, take a deep breath and let the puppy love flow to them.
Register for the event on Sea2Sky Wellness Club website. The class is at 12.30 p.m. on May 6 at the club (428 Columbia Street), and is priced at $45 plus tax (you have to create an account on the website before you make a purchase). The future sessions will include puppies 16 weeks and younger.
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