3 months ago
My partner and I booked this puppy yoga class while we were in London celebrating his birthday. When I booked, we didn’t know which breed of puppies we’d get as it was booked well in advance, so we were really excited to find out we’d have Chow Chow puppies.
The session started with around 30 minutes of yoga, followed by 30 minutes with the puppies. The yoga itself was enjoyable and included a good variety of stretches, although I did feel the last part of the class was a little rushed.
Before the puppies came out, we were given guidance on how to safely handle them and were asked to remain seated on our mats throughout the puppy session, which was understandable.
Unfortunately, this is where the experience became disappointing. The puppies were very tired and mostly stayed near the entrance where the two staff members were standing. My partner and I were at the opposite end of the room, and aside from staff occasionally bringing a puppy over to place on our laps, the puppies showed very little interest in coming over to us. We were hoping for more opportunities to cuddle, stroke and interact with them, but instead we spent much of the time watching them play amongst themselves at the other end of the room.
I appreciate that they’re puppies, so accidents are inevitable, and they did wee quite a lot during the session. However, some of it ended up on the yoga mats, and we noticed the mats already had an unpleasant smell during the yoga portion of the class. It might be worth replacing or deep-cleaning them more regularly.
I also wonder whether the puppies were tired because there had been a session immediately before ours. Our class itself started around 10 minutes late but still finished on time, meaning we didn’t receive the full hour we’d paid for. I think spacing sessions out more would benefit both the puppies and the overall customer experience.
Overall, it was a lovely idea and the yoga instructor was great, but the puppy interaction didn’t live up to our expectations. Sadly, I wouldn’t recommend it based on our experience.