A tiny Chihuahua scampers across the mats spread throughout a yoga studio in Canggu, Indonesia.
Three black puppies wobble between outstretched arms, prompting delighted laughter from the participants.
Nearby, Blueberry and Helena – two irresistibly cute brown mixed-breed puppies – eagerly clamber onto a young woman holding a plank pose.
By the time the class reaches shavasana, the deep relaxation pose that concludes the session, the puppies have settled down, curling up on participants' stomachs.
Welcome to puppy yoga.
Puppy yoga has become a global trend, with classes offered from Thailand and Australia to Switzerland and Germany. In Bali – Indonesia's yoga haven – it has naturally found a home.
Instead of focusing solely on breathing techniques and posture, the playful four-legged friends add a sense of light-heartedness, adorable photo opportunities and plenty of happiness.
At the Anginsepoi Hotel in Canggu, a seaside stronghold for digital nomads, a pool glistens in the sun and coconut palms sway in the breeze as the participants move into Downward-Facing Dog while the puppies frollick around them.
But behind the heartwarming scenes, animal welfare campaigners have long warned that the puppies may not be enjoying the experience nearly as much as it appears.
When cuteness becomes a business
Experts are particularly concerned about classes that use puppies specifically bred for the purpose. Sometimes they are brought in for class several times a day, leaving them hardly any opportunity to retreat.
In 2024, Italy decided to ban puppy yoga classes citing animal welfare concerns.
Wiebke Plasse from the Berlin-based World Animal Protection Society recommends that those interested in puppy yoga should try and find out in advance under what conditions the dogs are kept.
She says puppy yoga can be a good thing for "large animal shelters that have lots of puppies and simply don't have the capacity to bring them all into contact with people."
Plasse recently visited animal shelters in Bali to see how they work. If puppies are socialized through puppy yoga schemes and prepared for adoption, the trend could certainly be positive, she says.
"The danger lies in people no longer having animal welfare in mind at all, but only money," says Plasse.
Many commercial dog breeders have started offering puppy yoga and breeding puppies primarily to boost their income, she notes.
Animal rights organisation Peta has also highlighted what it describes as "catastrophic conditions" and mistreatment of the puppies in some cases.
Puppy yoga might also intensify the demand for a particular "trendy and purebred" type of puppy, Peta warns.
Puppies should set the pace
Komang runs a shelter housing 500 rescued stray dogs an hour's drive from Canggu.
Every day, she takes her puppies herself to the Anginsepoi Hotel, where they learn to socialise.
"Many of our puppies are afraid of people because they've had bad experiences," she says. "But during the yoga sessions, they quickly become more trusting, much more relaxed and calm."
Before yoga instructor Nixie demonstrates the first asana, Komang and her staff remind the participants of the most important rule of the class: the puppies set the pace.
They should be allowed to approach the yogis of their own accord, not be forced into contact, and not be disturbed while sleeping.
Yoga becomes an afterthought
Class gets under way and participants move from cobra to warrior and into downward-facing dog. However, nobody takes the exercises too seriously here.
Laughter breaks out time and again as a puppy dashes across a mat or jumps onto someone's back - sometimes after being offered a treat by staff.
Participants repeatedly pull out their phones to take photos and videos of their adorable little yoga buddies – and achieving the perfect yoga pose quickly becomes a secondary concern.
When most yogis have left, Komang shows a photo of a little Chihuahua who was found half-dead on the street a few weeks ago, with hardly any fur left.
Today, he's healthy and full of energy, bouncing about on the back of a young participant in Pigeon pose.
According to Komang, proceeds from the yoga sessions go almost exclusively towards food, vaccinations and neutering for her charges.
Before she leaves, she invites anyone interested to visit her project in person and help look after the 500 dogs.
But puppy yoga has another benefit for her shelter, she says with a smile: since the classes began around two years ago, the number of dogs who found a new home has increased many times over. – dpa
