A fluffy collaboration: Puppy Yoga
What do you get when you mix yoga and puppies?
Pure Living Yoga is a yoga studio in Emerald Park. According to their website, their yoga sessions typically involve breathwork and movements to help create harmony throughout yourself.
However, in some classes, they like to add a bit of a twist, such as last week on Feb 3 when Pure Living Yoga partnered with CC RezQs to host puppy yoga.
For those of you who do not know, CC RezQs is a non-profit organization that works to help stray dogs and rehome them across Saskatchewan. According to their website, they often find strays from reservations and rural communities in Saskatchewan who are not typically in the greatest shape.
CC RezQs has found dogs that are malnourished and have worms, fleas, ticks, mange, injuries, and more, and they run solely off donations. If you want to see and learn more about CC RezQs, check out their website at ccrezqs.com.
Since these two businesses partnered to create puppy yoga, we wanted to know more about it, like the benefits and perks of this type of yoga. So, we chatted with Brittany Kish, one of the co-owners of the yoga studio.
Pure Living Yoga offered this puppy yoga class because Kish started to foster puppies with CC RezQs about a year ago and has fostered eight puppies so far. Since she started to foster puppies, she wanted to incorporate some meet and greets with the puppies to help them socialize with other dogs and people.
It is important and beneficial for the puppies’ development to have this kind of experience. Pure Living Yoga and CC RezQs typically try and do yoga when the puppies are quite young so they are not as hyper but are old enough to start socializing.
Puppy yoga has a different vibe from normal classes offered at Pure Living Yoga. Kish explained how the most recent puppy class went, “This time around, we [were] able to do more of a relaxing class. Although, it is more up to the people if they choose to follow the yoga or hang out more with the puppies.”
Kish believes the puppy yoga “has a different vibe,” saying “It is not as structured compared to a normal yoga class. We offer more active and more relaxing classes, but you can really do whatever.”
Even though the clients and puppies can just hang out, Pure Living Yoga ensures that the class is still fun for everyone. They plan according to the puppies and make sure to read the clients’ body language. If the clients are more there for the puppies, that is totally okay too; generally, they all are anyway!
Kish explains some health benefits of a puppy yoga class, “I am a firm believer that anytime people come together as a community there are health benefits, especially for mental health if you love animals. I think this is a nice way to brighten your day. Yoga, in general, has physical and mental health benefits. Having this more curated offer gives people an opportunity to do it. Also, for people who are new to yoga this can make it less intimidating… Movement and activity and getting together should always be fun!”
Well, the puppy yoga class sounds like it was a wonderful experience for the people and the puppies! If you want to attend a puppy yoga class, CC RezQs tends to hold them every couple of months when their puppies are old enough. You can check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/purelivingyoga/ to check for upcoming classes.
