Puppy yoga returns to Reston Town Center with rescue dogs

Puppy yoga is coming back to Reston Town Center Ice Skating Pavilion at 1818 Discovery Street in Reston on Sunday at 11 a.m., but the class is really the opening move in a much bigger Animal Expedition. The family-friendly event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and folds in a live DJ, face painters, caricature artists, kid’s train rides, a petting zoo, a reptile exhibit and dog agility demonstrations, making it easy to treat the yoga as the start of a half-day outing rather than a standalone class.

The yoga segment is listed as free, though attendees are asked to make a donation, and spots are limited. Yassi, of YassiKay Yoga and PureYāS Yoga, will lead the session, with puppies from A Forever Home Rescue Foundation, Inc. bringing the chaos and the charm. The event page also points to meet-and-greet opportunities with adoptable pets, which gives the experience a clearer rescue focus than the usual novelty workout.

That rescue piece is the part worth paying attention to. A Forever Home Rescue Foundation is a nonprofit, all-breed dog rescue based in Northern Virginia. Its mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome abused, neglected, abandoned and unwanted puppies and dogs. The group says it has no paid staff and relies on donations to support its work, so even a short event like this feeds into a much larger foster-based pipeline. Adoption listings also show that AFH serves primarily the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, while still accepting adopters from elsewhere who can complete the process in person.

Reston Town Center is positioning Animal Expedition as a broader animal celebration, with pet vendors, rescue organizations, exhibits and entertainment spread across the day. That matters because it turns the puppy yoga slot into one part of a fuller program, especially for families trying to decide whether to make the trip worth it. The center says it hosts hundreds of annual events, and the presence of lululemon at 11957 Market St. helps explain why the athletic-wellness side of the event fits so naturally into the property.

AFH’s appearance also looks like part of an ongoing local relationship. A 2025 Reston Town Center event listing placed the rescue at Pet Palooza, suggesting this is not a one-off cameo but a recurring public face for its adoption work. If the draw is the puppy yoga, the payoff is everything around it: a packed pavilion, a rescue with a clear mission and enough going on to justify staying well past the first downward dog.