Dog yoga with officers Tildy and Carson is a treat for students

University of Connecticut students showed off their downward dog poses with some of the school’s favorite dogs on March 12 with DOGA: Yoga with Tildy and Carson at UConn Rec.

Assistant Program Director of Fitness and Wellness Lauren Dalton orchestrated the event, which filled up only 35 minutes after the registration went live. She said after meeting UConn Police Department Officers Justin Cheney and JB O’Reilly in the fall, the handlers of resource dogs Tildy and Carson, they decided to work on an event to increase community outreach and cross-departmental collaboration at UConn.

“We talked over ideas, and then I was like ‘let’s try dog yoga,'” Dalton said. “They were all-in immediately, and again, we have a big enough gym that we can still keep it spaced out even during COVID times. And it connected really well on all parts.”

Doctoral student Caroline O’Dwyer is a yoga instructor at UConn Rec, and she lead about 30 students through a full 30 minutes of yoga while encouraging them to interact with the resource dogs. Below are photos of Tildy and Carson interacting with students and trying their paws at yoga.