Why your mat is irresistible during yoga
From your dog's point of view, yoga is baffling and inviting in equal measure. You are down on the floor at her level — a position that normally means play or cuddles — moving slowly, breathing audibly, and holding still in shapes that leave your face conveniently close to hers. A dog who wanders onto your mat, nudges your arm in plank, or settles triumphantly across your legs in savasana is not being naughty; she is accepting what looks like an open invitation to join a floor activity. Training does not remove her interest in you — it gives that interest a correct address: her own station, two feet away, where settling pays better than joining in.
Set up two mats, two jobs
Place her mat parallel to yours, close enough that she feels included, and make it identifiable as hers — the same mat, in the same spot, every practice. Before you start moving, settle her on it with the cue you use for mat work elsewhere, and give her something occupation-worthy: a long chew or a lickable mat of her own works well, because your early practices will be short and she needs a job that outlasts a few sun salutations. Stand on your own mat and reward her first for simply remaining on hers while you are upright and still — that baseline, you vertical and her settled, is the foundation every pose will be built on.
Add movement one pose at a time
The difficulty is not lying down; it is you moving. Introduce motion gradually: a single slow transition, then return to standing and reward her if she stayed put. Floor poses come next, because you dropping to her level is the moment most dogs break — practice getting down onto hands and knees, holding a breath, and getting up again, paying her generously for watching rather than joining. If she climbs onto your mat, avoid making it a game: calmly lead her back to hers, re-cue the settle, and make the next repetition easier. Build the sequence in the order your actual practice flows, since she is learning your routine's rhythm as much as individual poses — she will soon predict that the active part ends in stillness, and stillness is when her rewards arrive.
Shape the ending she has to master
Savasana is the final exam: you, motionless, on your back, breathing slowly — to a dog, either a nap invitation or a face-licking opportunity she has waited forty minutes for. Practice it separately at first, outside a full session: lie down for thirty seconds while she is settled with her chew, sit up, reward. Stretch the duration across days. Some dogs genuinely settle better if their mat touches yours at this stage, close enough to feel part of the quiet without being on top of you; that compromise is fine, because the goal is a shared peaceful practice, not a test of obedience at maximum difficulty.
Protect the routine as practice grows
As your sessions lengthen toward a full flow, her station has to hold for the duration, so keep topping up the association on shorter days rather than only ever asking for the longest version. If other people in the house do yoga or exercise on the floor, have them use the same two-mat setup, so she learns the rule is about floor practice generally, not only about you. A household member can also run her standalone mat-settle practice on days you are at a studio, keeping the skill warm. Those short helper sessions fit naturally into KinsLe Care Teams, where the practice can be assigned to whoever is home and marked complete, so her yoga-mat routine does not depend on your schedule alone.