Do you know that your pets can also be trained to practise yoga? Let’s check out Pawga- India’s first pet yoga experience. At Pawga, one practices beginner-friendly yoga as the puppies/kittens from animal shelters run around. Pawga was started to bring the shelters closer to people and to give everyone an inside slice of what happens at the shelters.
Pawga falls in the sweet spot between human and animal welfare as these pets have a positive impact on the mental well-being of humans and at the same time human interaction is vital for pets as it helps them evade early-stage depression.
Pawga is women-led. Swathi, Subhashree and Sinduja are friends from undergrad and they joined hands to start Pawga to create a revolution in adoption in India. They pioneered puppy and kitten yoga in India.
There are many reasons why they started Pawga. One of the ones is that they wanted to give our indie shelter rescue pets the same spotlight that all the other breeds of dogs enjoyed.
Pawga is a 60-minute yoga session. When puppies come in they might be a bit nervous as most of them have been through a lot. But Sinduja shared that they have noticed how they bounce back, come out of their shells, and re-start their faith in humans by curling in their laps towards the end of the session, refusing to leave the participants of Pawga.
“I was afraid of dogs before Pawga. Three years of Pawga has led me to feed and shelter dogs in my street. I don’t even recognize the person I was three years ago,” shared Sinduja.
She further added, “One of the other co-founders has anxiety attacks. She makes it a point to attend Pawga every weekend in any city. She has fewer attacks now and we are also very happy to see how peacefully she handles any situation now without anxiety. Pawga has taught us that there are bigger things in this world. Animal welfare is a never ending battle for the voiceless and there is always more to do.”
Today, the team also works with local governments to help spread the world on adoptions and at least to educate people in remote areas to take care of the pets around them.
Presently, Pawga has puppy and kitten yoga at the moment. They also have Paint with Pets where people practice basic art as older puppies and handicapped dogs run around them. And they have Pottery painting which focuses on older dogs, older puppies, and handicapped dogs who haven’t found a home yet.
We conduct these kids only puppy yoga sessions to encourage children to learn about shelter pets and for them to interact with pets at a younger age to instill compassion in them.
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