According to Ananove a chain of gyms in the US has started offering yoga classes for dogs.

Crunch is offering "Ruff Yoga" at its New York branch and is considering offering it in other locations.

During a recent session in Madison Square Park, the class attracted nearly 20 people and their pets.

"We do the traditional poses. The dogs just get incorporated," Crunch's yoga director Suzi Teitelman told Fox News.

Yoga guru Bruce Van Horn says the relaxed state people achieve through yoga rubs off on their animals if they're nearby during the exercises.

"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."

I give up I really do!



A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

My cats do all kinds of yoga postures without even thinking about it. There's the Sphinx (favoured by Heidi, fairly self-explanatory); the Toddler (sitting up on back end with back legs splayed out, usually leaning forward to wash the chest - this is one of Chomsky's, and he looks really silly in it!); the Long Oblong (in which Klinsmann stretches out to his full mindboggling length and then folds all his legs right under his body, so all you see is a furry ginger rectangle with an insolent expression on one end); and that one involving the back leg over the shoulder, which may or may not have a name but probably shouldn't. Minsky doesn't tend to do any of these, at least not where he can be seen. He's got dignity to keep up, after all!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

My cats do all kinds of yoga postures without even thinking about it. There's the Sphinx (favoured by Heidi, fairly self-explanatory); the Toddler (sitting up on back end with back legs splayed out, usually leaning forward to wash the chest - this is one of Chomsky's, and he looks really silly in it!); the Long Oblong (in which Klinsmann stretches out to his full mindboggling length and then folds all his legs right under his body, so all you see is a furry ginger rectangle with an insolent expression on one end); and that one involving the back leg over the shoulder, which may or may not have a name but probably shouldn't. Minsky doesn't tend to do any of these, at least not where he can be seen. He's got dignity to keep up, after all!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I bet those dogs are very good at the "Down Dog" pose, eh?

My cats also have their own yoga poses....

Loki has perfected the Loki Death Roll where he jumps up on the chair you're about to sit on and begins rolling side to side and chirping to have his belly rubbed!

Odin does the ragdoll flop. He lies on his back and then lets his back legs splay out as far as they can go and his front legs flop the other direction as far as they can go. It's really very cute, as he has this adorable fuzzy white belly!

Scootie is slightly too dignified to do his poses in public, but he has been known to stretch into the "Clean Cat Butt" pose and then fall off the ottoman.

And Crickett doesn't do poses...she's too lazy!

Maybe yoga can work for dogs, it certainly doesn't work for my cats. They see me do yoga every morning and all they do is bug me for attention! I keep telling them they're keeping me from perfect enlightenment, but seeing as they've reached their perfect state I don't think they give a stuff ;-)

That Van Horn bloke may talk some guff, but he's right about one thing, crazy people do end up with crazy pets.

Speaking of dogs:

[story.news.yahoo.com]

[story.news.yahoo.com]

ooooooooookay..... I'm rather at a loss for words.

Van Horn is a real surname? I thought it was made up for Nina in Just Shoot Me?

Re: Dog marriage. It was probably the best day of that dog's life, for a start he got fed which must rank as being a miraculous thing in rural India, and at least the girl will have a small experience of a 'husband' who will be loyal, rather than treating her as a pet!