Yoga is something that can physically release stress while also getting people to move around and be loose. It is a way for people to interact with each other and stretch out their bodies. Add fluffy, furry, fun puppies into the mix, and it makes for the perfect Saturday to unwind from a stressful week at school or work. They run around with their little paws and sniff you constantly to the point of laughter, but they can put a smile on anyone’s face. When people interact with puppies, it releases oxytocin, which is a chemical in our brain that makes us feel empathetic and pleasant. This is why people are so drawn to puppy yoga: it combines two things that people enjoy.
Puppy Yoga is a new and popular activity that combines yoga and puppies. There are many places around Connecticut, including the company Puppies and Yoga, which has stores in other states around the U.S. as well. They have locations in Hartford, Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Manchester, costing $69 per person for a class.
This activity is basically an hour or so of playing with puppies without the obligation to even do the yoga, making it a great way to get rid of stress and lighten one’s mood. That is why I reached out to people at KO who have experienced this firsthand to see how it affected them.
Sophomore Janna Haxhaj was one of the first people I interviewed because she told me she went a few months ago in my advisee group. “When we got there,” she said, “they told us to do our waiver, and then they let us in. We picked our mat, and we could have done 45 minutes of yoga with the puppies running around, and then 30 minutes of just playing with the puppies. But you didn’t have to do the yoga during that time. You could have just played with the puppies. That’s what I did.”
Janna further described that this was in a one-story apartment with a bunch of windows and a lot of open space. There are usually 15-20 mats lined up on the floor in the room, with a place for the instructor in the front. There
A few popular breeds in sophomore Nora Geritts class were French bulldogs (Frenchies for short) and Australian shepherds. Frenchies are fluffy and small with tall floppy ears, and cute wrinkled faces that people tend to love. “When it comes to the Frenchies, they slept a lot,” she said, “so everyone would be like, we would be passing them around, so they could sleep in your lap.”
Nora mentioned her connection with Australian Shepeard puppies at the yoga session. “I have Australian Shepherds of my own, and they’re really fluffiest puppies.” She described to me one that stood out to her the most. “She was the only mini Australian shepherd,” she said. “It was very pretty and very tiny. Everyone loved her the most. But I just thought all of them were really cute, and they all obviously had their own personalities and stuff.”
Sophomore Jordan Veseskis also went to a class a few months ago at the Hartford location of the Puppies and Yoga chain and talked about how it made her feel calm and relieved stress. “The puppies were really cute,” she said, “and the yoga is also really relaxing.” She explained how she felt after the session. “I felt calm, energized,” she explained. Moreover, Janna also thought puppy yoga was a good way to unwind. “It’s a really good way to relieve stress,” she said. “I think it’s good for people to go and get out, and also socialize with other people, not just the dogs.”
Janna thinks the popularity of this new trend will ultimately benefit people. “I think that, even for little kids,” she explained, “it would be good for them to know about the dogs and what they have to do if they really want one. So they could also learn how to hold them.” She also thought puppy yoga would benefit older people. “It’s also good for older people to, like, move,” she said, “because a lot of old people I know have, like, a dog or a cat at home for them if they live alone. So if they don’t have one at home, they can go to this, and it’ll be good for them.”
Overall, puppy yoga is a new and fun thing that has an uplifting effect on people who go. “You can just see on their faces,” Nora said, “and, you know, you feel it yourself as well because they make you feel happier.”
