Some 270 pairs of dog owners and their pets converged in Hong Kong to perform a 30-minute yoga exercise in public. Held Jan. 17, the event attempted to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest "doga" or dog yoga class ever mounted. However, the record will still need to be verified, according to Reuters.
Yoga teacher and dog lover Suzette Ackerman led the class, where pet lovers posed and stretched along with their four-legged friends, according to Daily Mail. The humans also performed massages on their pets, which elicited a few barks.
"I feel really, really good. It's kind of a really close relationship with my dog. I like it," one of the participants, Susan Chan, told Daily Mail. She came with her dog, Sunshine.
Ackerman believes that joining doga classes is a good way to relieve stress and spend time with one's pet, especially among busy humans. "I think it's important. I think today they had fun," said Ackerman, per Independent. "And people in Hong Kong are very busy with work. Like 24/7 working. A lot of them have pets, but usually it's the helpers that take the dogs out for walks."
The last world record holder for the largest dog yoga event was held by San Diego in January 2015. About 265 pairs of people and their pets gathered at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center to do the yoga class, according to NBC San Diego.
There are many benefits to doing yoga together with pets as it achieves both fitness goals for humans and dogs. "If you have certain dogs, like we have a border collie, you really need to exercise them," said Iron Doggy's Sue Foster, via The Wall Street Journal. "It just makes sense to kill two birds with one stone."
