With her front legs planted on the floor, Zoe's hind legs were lifted above her head in the yoga position known as "Downward Dog."
The 1-year-old border collie lifted her nose and squinted her eyes to let her owner, Victoria Warfel, know that Zoe was feeling the stretch. Warfel, 34, and certified yoga instructor Lorrie Fritts, 54, have teamed up to bring "doga," yoga for people and their dogs, to locals.
Warfel, a well-known trainer who used to teach at Dog Wood Park and Daycare, has now moved her business, Dream Dogz, to the building that also houses Aalatash Animal Hospital West, located at 3909 NW 97th Blvd. The doga - pronounced "dough-guh" - sessions are held there at 9 a.m. every Saturday.
"She knows the dogs, and I know the people yoga," Fritts said about Warfel.
Warfel begins each session, which costs $10, by asking attendees to take a stroll with their dogs to the end of the driveway and back.
While the dogs walked beside their owners, they propped their heads up and wagged their tails. As their tongues swung from side to side, it appeared as though they had a smile on their faces and were ready for doga to start.
The dogs, on leashes, helped their owners find their mats, and the class continued with deep breaths for both dogs and owners.
Owners sat with legs stretched wide as their dogs lay perpendicular between their thighs. As they reached toward their right feet, they gently rubbed and stretched their dogs' hind legs. And as they reach toward their left feet, they rubbed and stretched their dogs' front legs.
The hair on the dogs' backs rose, and they shivered as if chills were running from their noses to the tip of their tails.
The dogs were big and small. There is no discrimination in doga.
They moved from "Downward Dog" to the "Child's Pose," where dogs - depending on their size - can sit on your back while the owners are on their knees. The owners stretched their arms as far as they could to feel the pull in their spine.
Suzi Teitelman, the creator of doga, said while yoga is calming, doga is more than that. It's an expression of love between owner and pet.
Teitelman, 39, of Jacksonville Beach, is a certified yoga instructor and has been teaching doga for 10 years now. She said it has reached millions of people and dogs.
"Dogs teach us how to be present in this moment," Teitelman said. "They teach us unconditional love."
Warfel learned about Teitelman and her art from a trainer's magazine two years earlier.
She went to Atlanta in October for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, where there was a rooftop doga session.
After seeing it with her own eyes, she knew she had to bring doga to Gainesville.
"We have such a big student population," she said. "And I thought doga was really fun, and I thought it was something they'd enjoy."
