Contributed by Tanya Rongkavilit
Recently, my life changed drastically – quitting my stressful 60-hour/week job, getting a dog (Muddy) and becoming a Yoga instructor. The center of my life became Muddy and Yoga – these are the only things I do everyday. This new journey brought me to meet new human and furry friends, and one day, we decided to try out this new trend called DOGA. It basically means doing yoga with your dog, thus DOGA.
Our first time trying Doga, we started our morning super excited and eager. Some were hoping their dog would become instantly docile, some prayed their dog would at least stay on the mat, and some just went with the flow. Muddy is a natural for yoga, as he is generally low in energy and willing to play doll for me. For most dogs, particularly in our group, this wasn’t an easy task. I guess you can already picture the mess and chaos. Doga didn’t turn out the way we pictured it. By the end of it, we did 15 mins of some yoga poses and 45 mins of yelling, dragging, pushing and loudly sighing!
What I’m also saying is that we spent one hour of quality time working and bonding with our dogs. They experienced a new activity, were touched in ways that were totally new to them, and we dealt with them in a completely new setting. That goes the same for us humans as well.
First try at Doga – massaging our dogs.
The goal of Doga is to bond and transfer calm energy to our dogs, be it getting stretched in ways that they normally don’t get stretched, getting massaged and experiencing their humans with a different energy (hopefully a calm one!). What’s important is that we don’t set any expectations. Expectations just set us up for disappointment, frustration, and maybe even anger. Doga is definitely not any of that, and not what we want our dogs to associate Doga with. We should always try to be calm, take what we can get from our dogs, and with time they will understand what Doga is all about. They will learn to love the relaxing energy they feel, and like any activity, they will get used to it and enjoy the time they have with their humans on the mat. Bottom line is, just ENJOY it like we did.
Here are some poses that you can easily try at home. Leave your comments if it worked miracles for you or if it was a disaster. Peace and love. Brought to you by InOm Yoga.
First off, some rules!
Make sure you give your dog a few treats before you start, but NO treats are allowed during Doga. Then at the end, remember to give them lots of treats! Do your best to have fun with it and modify as you go. Remember this is an activity to enjoy so it doesn’t need to be perfect!
1) Shoulder massage + twist – get seated comfortably with your dog in front of you, preferably the dog’s back to you. Reach your right hand to touch its left shoulder and start to feel its shoulder bones and the tissues. Use gentle circular squeezing motions with your hand and begin to massage. At the same time bring your left hand behind you and give yourself a gentle twist. Repeat on the other side.
Giving Muddy a shoulder massage and myself a nice twist for my back and core. Ahhh so nice!
2) Double downward dog – go into your normal downward dog position and have your dog in between your hands. Big dogs can lie down and you can rest your forehead on their back. Small dogs can stand up so that you can rest your forehead on them.
Our double downward facing dog!
3) Wheelbarrow – begin by standing firmly behind your dog (for small dogs you can kneel – see Sisi and Lucy on the pink mat). Feet are hip distance apart, toes pointing forward, and slowly slide your hands from your dog’s front shoulder to the back hips and down to its paws. Use a firm squeezing motion and squeeze a few times at the paw, this helps to increase circulation. If your dog is willing and has no hip problems, you can stretch their hips by lifting its back leg from beneath its hip creases (not the middle of the leg).
Wheelbarrow – Muddy is really enjoying this stretch – see how he kicks into my thighs. (L-R: Vicky with Olive, Vivien with Lulu, Sisi with Lucy, Tanya with Muddy.)
4) Gate pose – start by kneeling on the floor with your dog on your right side, and make sure you engage your core so it can support you. Keep your back straight and extend the left leg out to the side. If you can take the weight of your dog, start to lift your dog up at its armpit, not at the middle of the leg. That way, he feels safe and comfortable with it. Have your body touch the side of his belly and start to lean to the left. Your dog will get a nice stretch on the right side of his body and in the legs. Repeat on the other side.
For smaller dogs, you can go ahead and sit on top of your right leg in Japanese style, tops of the foot can be on the floor so you are more comfortable. See Sisi and Lucy for the small dog option (pink mat).
Gate pose – lift and lean to the side. Sisi is doing the modified version for small dogs.
4) Massages – you can massage your doggie and most of the time see instant results of relaxation and calmness.
- Ears – you can do a few gentle and firm squeezes at the ears, using your thumb and index finger. Start at the base of the edge of its ear and work your way to the tips and repeat on the other side of the same ear and do the other side. Use circular squeezing motions.
Olive settles down every time I touch her ears, some of the few moments that she can be such a darling!
Owwww that’s nice lady!!
- Shoulders + hips – massaging at the shoulder and hip joints, use your hands to explore the joints and tissues. Once you are a bit more familiar, you can start to press and squeeze into the creases in between the joints and the muscles. Every dog usually enjoys this and starts to sleep.
Muddy doses off here…
Don’t be afraid to really press firmly, they’ll love it!
Hope you and your furry friend find this a great bonding experience! It gets better after the first session, we promise 🙂 Let us know if you have any questions as well.
Can you do better than our downward dogs???
The Furry Tales 
