Animal Welfare And Fair Treatment Of Pups Is Our #1 Priority

Key Considerations To Protect Pups During Our Sessions

We manage several key items on the day of our events to ensure our pups needs are met

Sleep

Pups typically require 18 hours of sleep per day

Puppy "playtime" is capped at a max of 1.5h per day

Our pups join each session for 35 minutes per class

We ensure pups have at least 40m of rest time between each class

Our class opens with 25 minutes of yoga to ensure we have dedicated pup-sleep time between sessions

Cleanliness

We have a robust cleaning schedule to de-risk our studios

The studios are sanitised with Parvo-Virucide before and after every event day

We never share rope toys between classes

We clean all rubber toys with Parvo-Virucide before every event

All guests and staff must remove shoes and use alcohol wipes on their hands before entering the studio

Puppy Proofing

We de-risk our studio environments

Our studios are checked for choking hazards and external contaminants

We ensure our customers remove 'dangly' jewellery and don't bring items that could be harmful to pups into classes

We cover any areas of concern with white-picket fences to ensure pups can't access any higher-risk areas

Safety Demos

We brief all classes to limit the risks

How to pick up, safely hold and put down a puppy, avoiding higher-risk areas like joints

Do's and Don't include standing, moving around the room, and other behaviours that could put unnecessary pressure on developing bodies

Breed specifics (hip dysplasia etc.)

Notice that our breeding partners attend and that animal welfare-related queries can be triaged directly

Water & Food

Pups have constant access to water across our classes

Fresh water is available at all times

We ensure that water bowls are cleaned in a dishwasher between classes

We work with our breeding partners to ensure pups have the right amount of

food on the day and are fed in alignment with their standard daily routines

Understanding Risk & Leading The Way

At Puply we wholeheartedly understand and manage the risks surrounding Puppy Yoga and Puppy Based Events.

We are leading the way in this segment of the events industry, in order to define practices and safeguards that puts wellness and fair treatment of animals at our core.

Our Core Principles & Behaviours

Welfare + Safety

We learn, we train, and we develop to limit the risks associated with our activities. This results in a clear aim to make Puppy welfare and safety a mission-critical activity at Puply.

Rescue

We’re so fortunate we get to meet beautiful pups all the time. We invest in educating customers face to face and through our blog to support efforts in our industry to reduce flippant attitudes towards animals. We also have never and will never work with breeders we believe will allow their dogs to end up in rescue homes.

Dog-Mums

We believe all dog mums should lead happy and healthy lives. They are not here to simply procreate. We have several standards we look for with our breeders to ensure their dog mums are loved and not used for puppy farming. This includes checks on how many litters mum has had / will have and checking mum’s ownership history.

Puppy Farming

We deplore puppy farming and will never work with breeders we believe treat animals unfairly. Unfortunately, during the Covid pandemic there was meteoric demand for puppies. This led to many unscrupulous people acting with poor intentions and malpractice and attempting to industrialise the magical process of puppy birth. Our house checks ensure we will never partner with breeders who run puppy farms.

Ear + Tail Cropping

We deplore ear and tail cropping. Whilst it's illegal in the UK, we have still come across breeders who have either inflicted this procedure on their animals or have bought animals from abroad where cropping is legal. We believe pups should not be physically modified to appease some human desires for aesthetics. We will never partner with breeders who partake in the mutilation of animals.

Our Approach

We take a holistic approach to puppy safety. This ranges from working with selected KC and council registered breeders, home checks to ensure no puppy farms, care processes for their onsite and aftercare check-ups.

The yoga is closer to meditation poses (lying down / stretching). It’s more of an opportunity for pups to jump all over people and socialise with some “hooomans”.

Our cleaning process is meticulous. This includes using parvo-virucide and never sharing toys between classes. We will be publishing our “pup-festo” soon. This will be in partnership with a very special dog charity, which we can’t wait to announce. This will set the industry standard for what good practices look like for the fair and ethical treatment of all pups that attend puppy-based events and set the frameworks and approaches for all interactions we have with those on four legs and two.

We face questions from our customers regularly on pup-welfare

Here's where we stand In terms of the rules

We do not “own, keep or train animals as part of our activities”. We partner with breeders who attend our events and who have responsibility for their puppies at our events. We have limited contact with the pups apart from those agreed with breeders prior to our classes delivered at our partner venues.

Islington Council and the City of London, the licensing authorities responsible for maintaining oversight of matters relating to animal welfare have recently undertaken an assessment of our business and stated

“Your involvement with the exhibition of the puppies is limited and your role is more of an agent who is facilitating the display of the puppies. You do not own or train the puppies for the purpose of exhibiting them. As an agent with limited contact and responsibility, you will not need a licence.”

As such we as Puply have taken the relevant steps with the local and relevant authorities and established we do not need a license for the undertaking of our operational activities. Notwithstanding the guidelines we still take extra steps to ensure puppy safety is considered above all else. We can partner with any breeder we believe exhibits the care and appreciation of pups that we deem to be acceptable.

The Government Guidelines that relate to the exhibition of animals can be found here. The relevant language from the guidance that relates to Puply’s operational activities:

The guide does not apply to agents who organise the exhibition of animals but do not own or train them.

Agents must:

have limited or no contact with the animals

make sure all keepers and trainers are licensed and comply with the regulations.

Puply is deeply committed to operating within the guidelines and moreover, in a manner that protects animals from harm

Before puppies attend our sessions, we Undertake home checks to ensure:

Suitable living conditions

Presence of mum

Numbers of litters mum has had

Lineage documentation

Breed specific considerations

Diet plans

Process For Sale

Vaccination Schedule

The above helps us understand and ensure that we don’t engage breeders that use unethical breeding practices like puppy framing. Whilst we might have a preference for KC registered or Council registered this doesn’t preclude who we work with. For instance, if we find a family that has had an accidental litter, we could still work with them if they checkpoints are met.

Put simply, we take a pragmatic and involved approach to working with breeders that prioritises welfare and fair treatment of puppies. We often turn down opportunities to work with individuals we believe have not done the right things.