We’re in that time of year when outdoor activities start to become more difficult to practice; it’s cold, raining, and people don’t want to leave the house. But nowadays it’s easy to find a solution for everything, especially with the internet.

Lately, Puppy Yoga has been getting more and more attention, and Vancouver has already jumped on this trend. Manu yoga studios are adopting this new practice that combines the opportunity to exercise with cute puppies. So you are exercising and getting a lot of affection, and kisses. 

I must admit the first time I heard about it, I thought it was a lie! After all, how can you practice something as deep as yoga that requires such great focus while these super cute puppies walk all over the room?

But the truth is that this is the perfect therapy. What more do you need to feel good than to do the downward-facing dog pose while you have a dog underneath you, right?

And puppy yoga is all the rage because it involves animals along with the students, but it’s still a physical activity that’s very good for our bodies and minds.

If you have the opportunity, give yourself the chance to have this new experience. It all starts as soon as you enter the room. You are greeted by the puppies. You spend some time with them relaxing and clearing your mind. Even the teachers understand the reality of the practice and accept that no one is in class to be perfect or have perfect posture, instead the focus is to exercise while being comforted by a puppy.

The best part of all this is that these yoga studios have partnerships with breeders and adoption centres, so in addition to them doing us a lot of good, we are also giving a lot of love to these puppies. Many of them are in the socialization phase, which is when they are learning to deal with noises, interact with and trust humans, and control their energy.

There really are no downsides, everyone wins, and that one hour can become more important than you imagine. In a city like Vancouver where everything seems to happen too fast, and you’re lonely, puppy yoga is all you need. So whenever you’re feeling down, think: You could have a puppy lying in your lap right now, taking away all the bad energy!