This senior Golden Retriever could barely walk, until it started doing pilates

In May 2026, Jillian Loustaunau (@paw.lates), a Pilates instructor from Hawaii, noticed her senior golden retriever had lost mobility, especially in his hind legs. Worried, she rushed him to the veterinarian who specialized in acupuncture and physical therapy (PT). There, while watching her dog's rehabilitation exercises, Loustaunau noticed many movements were similar to what she taught her human Pilates clients. The realization hit her hard. She started imagining if Pilates-based exercises could actually help dogs. Curious, Loustaunau started Pilates class with her 15-year-old dog every day, and surprisingly it worked. On September 20, 2026, the pet parent shared how Pilates transformed her dog’s life. The video has since been viewed 1.8 million times on Instagram.

Pilates to the rescue

Weasel started losing mobility in May, and he soon struggled to walk, stand, and even sit without toppling over. Alerted by the sudden change, his mom, Loustaunau, took him to a veterinary physical therapist. There, the vet prescribed him acupuncture and some physical exercises. That’s when Loustaunau noticed similarities between his rehab exercises and the movement she taught her human clients. "I was reminded of learning how Joseph Pilates studied cats in developing contrology and had this lightbulb moment that Pilates could probably translate to dogs too," she explained.

Doggy Pilates takes off

Curious, Loustaunau decided to teach Weasel his own Pilates routine. Since she already had the mats and machines required for his elasticity, she started teaching the dog the exercises that she made her human clients do so he could regain his mobility. “I started doing Pilates with him in an attempt to keep the mobility he had left… but then three months later, he’s almost back to 100%,” Loustaunau confessed.

While Weasel was on one-of-a-kind fitness journey, Loustaunau observed that he also started enjoying the exercises, including on the Cadillac, Chair CoreAlign, and ladder barrel. In her post, she explained her goal was only to have her dog stand comfortably, but within a few weeks, Weasel started showing immense progress. "He took me by surprise when he was able to walk away unprompted," she added. She explained that initially, she used treats to coax Weasel into making small movements, but eventually, he picked up the exercises with ease. 

Pilates started with cats

As Loustaunau pointed out, the original Pilates exercises were created by observing animals, as a 1962 article states. As a child, Joseph, founder of Pilates, started observing animals bounding through the forest. "He began carefully observing the cats and analyzing their motions for hours at a time. He saw them, when they had nothing else to do, stretching their legs out, stretching, stretching, keeping their muscles limber, alive," records suggest. Later, while making a living as a boxer and circus tumbler, Joseph developed a series of exercises for humans to relax after an exhausting day. To this day, nearly 12.9 million people participate in Pilates training in the United States, per Wellyx.

‘That's a flex'

Videos of Weasel doing Pilates with Loustaunau triggered happy tears in the comment section. @kristen_widman commented, "It would be awesome if this were offered as a preventative for dogs at a younger age. Such good progress with your baby." @danidealss wrote, "Girl, this is amazing. You’ve got to make an at-home program that people can do with their dogs! I would love to start something like this with my 3-year-old pup!"

You can follow Jillian Loustaunau (@paw.lates) on Instagram for Pilates videos. 

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