Puppy yoga classes are booming on Long Island

It sounds like an international cooking class — 13 children introduced to Salsa, Pesto, Wasabi, Kimchi and Aioli.

But those are puppy names, not condiments, and the dogs are the stars of a recent puppy yoga session at Once Upon a Treetop in Plainview. The downward dog position is a lot more entertaining when it includes the possibility that a real dog will scamper up and lick your face as you pose.

"There are doggies everywhere!" says Gianluca Cammarano, 5, of Plainview, when the pups are let in. 

"I want to adopt all of them," says Natalia Ward, 9, of Dix Hills. 

Goat yoga has been around for a few years, with goats wandering through classes and sitting on participants’ laps and backs as they go through the positions. Now, the incorporation of animals has expanded on Long Island to include puppies or adult dogs in indoor classes for children as well as grown-ups.

"It’s a little bit of a fad, but it could last," says Leslie Luft, owner of Absolute Yoga in Woodbury, which offers puppy yoga for adults every couple of months. The next session is planned for Dec. 14. "They get to lick your face and pull on your hair. No one comes in there for a strong, powerful or any kind of strict yoga class. It’s just fun."

Karina Blackstone, owner of the adult Hot Yoga 4 You in Rockville Centre, echoes Luft: "I don’t see stopping this anytime soon," Blackstone says. "People look forward to it." She's also planning to add puppy Pilates.

FUNDRAISERS FOR RESCUES

Puppy yoga is therapeutic for the participants and a good exposure opportunity for dogs, organizers say. Local animal rescues typically team up with the yoga studios or instructors, bringing both dogs and rescue volunteers, and part of the class fee is donated to the rescue operation. The donations are used for food and medicine for the dogs, says Amanda Guido, executive director of the Hope for Cleo Animal Rescue of Smithtown. Sometimes, the classes even result in a family adopting one of the puppies.

"It's a really nice collaboration. The goal of yoga is just to make kids feel good, and there's no better way to do that than when you throw in animal interaction," says Jessica Anastasio, owner of The Little Lotus of Lynbrook children's yoga studio. She's even brought in baby rabbits and chicks to add to yoga classes in addition to the puppies.

Yoga Darshana Center in West Babylon does puppy yoga regularly in the fall and winter, says director Matthew Pecorella. "It's such a lighthearted event," he says.

For the recent Once Upon a Treetop event, which cost $50 per child, the puppies from Hope For Cleo were initially kept out of the room. In addition to the five puppies of the litter named for condiments, all of them chihuahua-dachshund mixes known as chiweenies, the rescue also brought three fluffy white puppies named Orbit, Orion and Aurora and five volunteers. Orbit and Orion's mother is a white husky and Aurora looks like a cattle dog mix, Guido says.

'ORGANIZED CHAOS'

"We start off with some yoga first so the kids can focus and find their center," says yoga instructor Rita Thomas, who led the children in poses imitating a giraffe grabbing a leaf with its long neck, a tree spreading its branches and a bear baring its claws and growling.

"Once the puppies come in, that’s it. They’re all over the place. Everyone’s jumping around, chasing them, petting them," Thomas says. "It’s very therapeutic for the amount of joy it brings."

It’s very therapeutic for the amount of joy it brings.

- Rita Thomas, a yoga instructor at Once Upon a Treetop

Rescue volunteer David Perez works with Natalia’s younger sister, Liliana, 6. "Give him nice little taps on the head, nice and soft," he instructs as Liliana interacts with Aurora. Meanwhile, Natalia is holding Pesto. "He licked my mouth," she says, delighted.

Eventually the parents are let into the room as well, and a picture-taking frenzy begins.

"It’s great for this age group, encouraging him to be gentle, calm, take a breath. He’s super active," says Nicki Wolfert, 42, of Massapequa, a special-education teacher, of why she brings her son, Donovan, 4, to the class. She called the puppy part "organized chaos."

Jasmine Chandi, 37, a stay-at-home mother from Plainview, brought her son, Manav Luthra, 6. "We have our own dog, a big German shepherd that is fully grown now," Chandi says. "Small dogs are easier for him to play with."

And Sandra Ward, of Dix Hills, a project manager for a telecommunications company, says she brought her daughters in a bid to stave off the inevitable. "They keep asking my husband for a dog," she says. "I thought this would be a nice puppy fix."

A PUPPY GOES HOME

Sometimes, an event creates a match. Candice Schordine, of Lynbrook, adopted Duke, a mix, after she took her daughter, Adeline, 4, to puppy yoga at The Little Lotus of Lynbrook in April.

"I didn't even know the dogs were up for adoption," says Candice, 40, a nurse practitioner. "I just fell for him right away. He was just cracking me up. I called my husband and said, 'You've got to come meet this dog.'"

He did, and while Candice and Adeline were in the class, Luke, 40, a public school teacher, was asking the rescue volunteers about adoption. The Schordines also have a son, Miles, 2.  

"My kids love him," Candice says of Duke, whose name they kept. "He's been a great addition."