I see that doggy yoga is a ‘ thing’ now – getting dogs to make shapes alongside their people. This is just great – a time for connection with your furry pal, to strengthen your relationship with some training. But I really don’t understand why we humans think that we have anything whatsoever to teach our beloved dogs in the way of yoga.
I spend a lot of time with non-human animals. I often find them easier company than humans. I relish time spent with beings so straightforward, direct in their want of companionship, and so in touch with their physical needs. There’s truly no need for yoga for any of them. They are perfectly attuned to their bodies – they rest when they can, they know when they need to eat and they don’t waste their energy on anxiety. Famously, animals live in the moment, but also, my dogs have fabulous memories – I can take them somewhere we went years ago and they’ll remember the trails. But, they don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future.
Some may go a step further and say that they are enlightened beings. My dogs have a ‘knowingness’. They are so in tune with themselves, and so connected to me and their pack, often they’ll know before I do when something’s wrong. Their mindfulness is legendary – they are acutely aware of each thing that they do. There’s no multi-tasking, just a precision focus on what they’re doing. Often people get frustrated at dogs who, say, don’t come back when they’re chasing a squirrel. But they are simply focusing in a way that we should admire. Imagine if all of us were so focused on our work that we didn’t even hear calls for dinner!
My favourite trait though is the restfulness of a healthy and un-traumatised non-human animal. It’s a shame I have to say it, but so many animals – whether domestic, farmed or used for human entertainment – are forced to live in a way they find incredibly stressful. When animals are healthy and well, they rest most of the time. We humans spend our time in a ridiculous culture of busyness. We make it an accolade, a badge of honour even, to be busy. I’ve never heard of anything so ridiculous! After all, the truly finite resource we all have is time. Our culture conspires to keep us busy. We are trained from a young age to get up, go to school, with a different activity every hour, to commute, to do homework and then do evening classes. We are kept busy every moment of every day. Certainly rest periods are never scheduled into our diaries. As adults we keep the pattern, always keeping busy at work, then going out in the evenings. Even our holidays can be a madly stressful experience of ‘making memories’, instead of deeply living in the present.