‘A little bit of extra joy’: Dartmouth yoga studio offers classes with animals

Yogis strike a pose with baby animals at one of Dartmouth’s newest yoga studios.

Dartmouth Paws and Poses Yoga is integrating all types of animals into their weekend yoga sessions.

“People like different animals,” said Allyson Crooks, owner of the yoga studio.

“Some people are cat people. Some people are dog people. So, we wanted to switch it up and goats just kind of bring a little bit extra joy.”

That seemed to be the consensus on Saturday, when the first goat yoga class took place.

“I think it’s so fun to get this interactive experience of bringing animals you normally wouldn’t get to meet into the yoga environment,” said yoga instructor Courtney Taylor.

“It’s a little bit of silly yoga, especially with the goats jumping around and playing on top of you, but it’s just a really fun experience.”

Crooks says she wanted to bring something special to Dartmouth and her daughters helped with the idea.

“My oldest daughter is in her first year of business at SMU and my youngest daughter is doing her co-op at the SPCA,” she said.

“So, we just kind of decided this might be a really cool thing to do. Make people happy. Everybody’s excited to be here, and everybody likes being around animals.”

And it’s also enjoyable for the goats.

“With any animal, socialization is key. When we have new owners that are going to be taking the goats, we like our babies to be well socialized,” said Stephanie Murphy, who owns Coldstream Acres and the dozen goats who made an appearance in the yoga class.

“We like them to be well handled and even though they socialize with each other, the human interaction is very important for them. Just for safety reasons, but even just as a wellness thing, it’s an endorphin release.”

Having the animals present in class can test the mindfulness of yoga practice.

“It can be a bit of a challenge to maybe bring that focus back in,” said Taylor.

“You have these little goats running around. Can you focus on your practice? But it’s also an opportunity to sort of let go of the seriousness that is yoga. Enjoy the stretches. Have some laughs with your friends.”

The dogs and kittens that participate in the yoga classes come from breeders and are normally spoken for, but there is potential for adoption and maybe even the chance to take home a goat as well.

“We had 24 babies born at our farm this year. We have five left,” said Murphy.

Crooks says she hopes to partner with the SPCA in the future as well.

“We’ve reached out to the SPCA and if there’s any litters of puppies or kittens that we can work in to our classes, we definitely will,” she said.

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