New York Gym Offers Yoga For Dogs
by ANC Staff
A New York branch of the fitness chain "Crunch" has begun offering a yoga class especially for dogs. The class, called "Ruff Yoga," is being held once a month in Manhattan's Madison Square Gardens.
"We do the traditional poses. The dogs just get incorporated," said Suzi Teitelman, director of yoga at the gym.
"Yoga came from the animals," she said. "It's a natural instinct."
Bruce Van Horn, a yoga expert whose new book, "Yoga for Pets and the People who Love Them", will be published late 2003, agrees that yoga — or "doga" as dog lovers have begun to call it — seems to be good for animals.
"It's a healing thing," he said.
Van Horn is currently trying yoga with dogs at a New Jersey
animal shelter, using breathing exercises and other techniques to make them calmer and more adoptable.
"It actually reduces the stress levels of animals," Van Horn said. "When people have crazy animals, it's usually because the people themselves are crazy."
Sources
Ananova
pda.ananova.net/news/story/sm_791622.html?menu=news.story
New York Dogs Try Yoga for Stress Relief
by Caroline Humer
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