Posing with puppies: Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses returns to Mount Airy brewery

Jack Hogan, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
Updated ·3 min read

Jan. 22—As people shuffled into Red Shedman Farm Brewery and Hop Yard in Mount Airy for a Sunday morning yoga class, they sanitized their hands, spread out their mats and placed their coats on an elevated surface to prevent them from being peed on.

The would-be culprits? Three-month-old boxer mix sisters, Lily and Luna, who trotted around the brewery-turned-yoga-studio for the hour-long class and snuggled up to each of the 30 participants.

The two puppies joined from PetConnect Rescue as part of a yoga class called NamaStay for the Barks and Beer, organized by New Jersey-based Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses.

Tickets for the class were $37.50 online, and a portion of the sales was to be donated to PetConnect Rescue in Potomac.

Sunday was the second NamaStay for the Barks and Beer at Red Shedman this month.

Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses had 60 people sign up for the first 30-person class on Jan. 8, so the organization scheduled an additional class.

Jeffrey Luke said that, after discovering puppy yoga from an online video, he searched for classes near his Silver Spring home and came across NamaStay for the Barks and Beer.

Luke tried to register himself and longtime friend Andrea Dickerson for the class, considering she just had a birthday. Luke, Dickerson and Dickerson's mom make up a sort of dog-owning "pack" who get together for various activities, they said.

"We're both dog lovers of course," Luke said.

After missing out on the Jan. 8 class, the pair made it on Sunday.

Asked whether she and Luke plan to return for another class, Dickerson, chuckling, said "so far it's looking good."

Charlotte Kamauf attended Sunday's class with her friend of 45 years, Tracie Trainor.

The two women, both from Anne Arundel County, first met when their daughters, who are now 35, were in preschool together. Their daughters later went to different schools and grew apart, but Kamauf and Trainor have remained close.

"She called me and I went, 'I'm in,'" said Trainor said, referring to Kamauf. "I've done goat yoga, never done dog yoga."

Kamauf learned about NamaStay for the Barks and Beer from her daughter, who attended last year and ended up adopting one of the dogs from the class. Red Shedman is a special place for her, too.

"My husband took me here on a date and we've been married almost 45 years," she said. "We've been coming here ever since. We come here maybe five or six times a year."

The yoga classes normally feature more than two dogs, but Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses has had to limit participating puppies to those from the same litter because of high incidences of canine influenza this year, said Kelly Krichten, an event manager with Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses.

Lily and Luna's three siblings were at the Jan. 8 class and they were adopted in the two weeks since, Krichten said.

Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses has raised more than $125,000 for dog rescues in the region since it began hosting classes in 2017, Krichten said.

The organization is based in New Jersey, but it also hosts classes in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Florida and Colorado.

Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses had a NamaStay for the Barks and Beer event in Hackensack, New Jersey on Sunday, too, according to its Eventbrite page.

The organization has held classes at Red Shedman almost monthly for the last two to three years, Krichten said. About five of those classes have been with PetConnect Rescue, she said.

Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses has also held classes at various colleges and universities, the Washington Monument and Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals baseball team.

"We alternate different rescues in the area just to spread out who we're giving to," Krichten said. "We use local yoga instructors and breweries, or event locations, just to spread awareness for them as well."

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