Influencer calls puppy yoga a disrespectful dilution of sacred yoga

An influencer’s post calling puppy yoga a disrespectful dilution of sacred yoga drew more than 500 likes, pulling fresh attention to a fight over whether animal-filled classes are building community or turning yoga into a marketing prop. The sharpest criticism is not about dogs alone. It is about whether puppies, goats and other animals are being packaged inside a commercial scene that strips yoga of context, accountability and restraint.

That argument sits inside a much larger history. Modern yoga in the West has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, and counter-movements have answered with slogans like “Take Back Yoga” and “Honor the Cultural Roots of Yoga.” A 2020 Columbia University Press chapter on the politics of yoga in the United States and India also complicates the simplest version of the complaint, because scholars argue modern postural yoga developed in late-19th- and early-20th-century India through interaction with Western physical culture and Indian nationalism. In other words, the story is not just Western borrowing, but also Indian reinvention.

That makes the dog yoga split especially revealing. Doga, meaning yoga with your own dog, took off in the 2010s and usually reads as a bonding practice. Puppy yoga, by contrast, leans harder on novelty and shareable visuals, and the same trend has expanded into kitten, baby goat and rabbit sessions. Animal welfare scientist Mia Cobb has warned that yoga with animals often puts human well-being ahead of animal welfare, especially when young animals cannot opt out of contact.

The welfare concerns have been concrete. In July 2023, ITV found puppies as young as about six and a half weeks old being used in puppy yoga, with some sessions running for hours without regular water or sleep. The RSPCA and The Kennel Club called those conditions “shocking” and “dangerous” and said the practice should end. Italy drew its own line in May 2024, when the health ministry banned puppies from yoga classes after an investigation and complaints from LNDC Animal Protection, while still allowing adult dogs in animal-assisted activities. Italian animal-protection officials also warned that the format can amount to commercial exploitation and may encourage impulsive puppy purchases.

For organizers who want the room to feel playful without disrespecting yoga traditions, the practical shift is clear: put adult dogs ahead of puppies, give animals real space to rest and leave, and make the dog a willing participant instead of the visual hook. That is the difference between a bond-building doga session and a gimmick that uses cuteness to hide the cost.