ITV Probe Finds Underage Puppies Denied Water, Sleep at Yoga Classes

Puppies as young as six weeks old were denied water, deprived of sleep, and overworked for hours inside UK puppy yoga sessions, an ITV News undercover investigation has found. The RSPCA and the Kennel Club have responded by demanding a nationwide ban on the practice.

Among the most disturbing details uncovered: puppies in warm yoga rooms were not given water because, organisers reasoned, "it might make them pee more." When exhausted puppies fell asleep during sessions, they were woken, picked up, and moved around the room. The Irish Examiner, reporting on the investigation's findings, characterised that treatment plainly: "Sleep deprivation is a form of torture."

The RSPCA pushed back hard on the industry's standard defence. Providers frequently claim that class environments benefit puppies through socialisation, but the RSPCA said the reality is "a potentially damaging environment for young dogs." Some of the classes examined were also operating without licences.

Separate undercover work revealed how easily underage puppies entered the supply chain. Volunteers contacted a puppy yoga company and offered puppies that were only five weeks old. According to Ms Kenny, who was involved in the approach, the company did not turn them away. "But they still said: 'Bring them along' — they were so desperate for puppies," she said. The company then asked whether the same puppies could work across all four classes scheduled that day.

MLHR found there were no background checks and no vaccination records required at the venues it examined, with puppies barely weaned being accepted. Volunteers were offered between €200 and €300 in cash to rent puppies for a single session, Ms Kenny said.

The welfare standard at issue is well established: puppies generally still feed from their mothers and should not be separated until after eight weeks. Removing a puppy before that point can cause long-term behavioural and health problems. The six-week-old puppies documented by ITV, and the five-week-old animals offered and accepted in the undercover approaches, were weeks short of that threshold.

The calls from the RSPCA and the Kennel Club for a nationwide ban now place the puppy yoga industry under significant regulatory pressure. For anyone who has attended or booked a class, the investigation raises direct questions about the age, vaccination status, and daily workload of the puppies involved, none of which, based on what investigators found, were being adequately verified or controlled.