Real Dog Yoga is a programme of training. It ultimately involves teaching dogs to express and hold specific body postures, expressions and actions that stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and help them to become or remain calm.
The programme has designed an environment for learning which is called option training. We train yoga using this method where dogs have specific areas and communication signals they can use to opt out at any point. Regular breaks are taken following a protocol to ensure that emotional stressors such as frustration do not complicate learning patterns.
Using option training we teach each dog a set of 30 postures (which are broken into 3 sets: sitting, laying and standing) as well as 15 actions and 10 expressions. These are designed to help the dog learn to become or maintain calmness. It also helps to increase the dog and human interspecies vocabulary and create better understanding and compassion.
