When you walk into Freddy Puppy Yoga in Saorsa Studio for the first time, it seems the same as any other standard yoga class. There’s plenty of space to set up a yoga mat, a room to store your jacket and a calming atmosphere.
Then, in the corner, you’ll notice a gate behind which a litter of puppies are crawling around each other, eager to meet the room of humans.
For the past six months, Shayna Hall has run a puppy yoga class in north Fredericton in which participants are led through a one-hour yoga practice while puppies roam the room.
“A typical yoga class is very calm, it’s quiet, it’s meant to be very introspective,” said Hall. “Puppy yoga is not calm, it’s not quiet … there’s a lot going on but it’s still the movement of yoga and the joy that the puppies bring help to bring that feeling of calmness and those typical feelings of moving your body.”
Hall explained that the way the class is run differs from the usual yoga class structure.
Whereas a yoga class will usually be calm with stretches meant to challenge you, puppy yoga is relaxed and beginner-friendly, with the stretches designed to be close to the floor and easy to slip in and out of to allow for as much puppy interaction as possible.
However, Hall said the class still brings many of the same benefits.
“There’s really something special about moving your body when you’re actually kind of distracted,” she said. “It kind of helps to push through the flow when you have something else to focus on.”
After getting her yoga teaching certificate three years ago and experimenting with teaching various classes, Hall wanted to challenge herself. She noticed that puppy yoga in Halifax was quite successful and thought it would be a good addition to Fredericton.
“[Yoga] has taken me through a lot of different chapters of my life and it’s the one thing that has really always stayed consistent,” she said. “So it’s really nice to share that practice with other people, something that means so much to me.”
Along with her passion for yoga, Hall has always had a love of dogs, growing up with several of them in the family. Hall spends a lot of time looking into breeders in the area and forming connections with them to bring puppies into class.
She said that it’s amazing to see both the puppies and the participants affected by yoga.
“It’s really nice to see the puppies enjoying themselves, experiencing something new … And then in terms of the participants, just seeing how happy it makes them, how grateful people are, it’s really something special.”
A plethora of breeds come to the weekend yoga classes, including Australian shepherds, pugs, border collies and Hall’s self-proclaimed favourite so far, golden retrievers.
“I always love the golden retrievers,” she said, “They’re just so sweet.”
Often, the litters who take part in the class will have a few puppies looking for homes, with some adoptions happening as a result of participants falling in love with the dogs in their classes.
Others not looking to adopt simply enjoy the fleeting happiness of doing the downward dog pose with real dogs running around.
Third-year student Amy Dvernichuk recalled her own paws-itive experience when she attended a golden retriever class in October.
As a student-athlete on the St. Thomas University women’s hockey team, she said it was a break from both intense hockey workouts and school work.
“I think it was a weekend when I had a test and it was just kind of a nice recess and a chance to get away from school and hockey, just to kind of breathe and take some time for myself,” said Dvernichuk.
She expressed wishes to go to puppy yoga again, adding that the classes fill up quickly.
“It’s becoming so popular now, which is awesome to see.”
The next Fredericton classes are set for Mar. 1, with both already full. For Hall, this is the hope for Freddy Puppy Yoga going forward.
“My goal is to stay open and continue bringing the joy of puppies to people,” said Hall.
