It's almost Week 4 of January.

Which means if you started the year strong with training your dog - daily sessions, perfect consistency, excited energy - there's a good chance you're starting to slip right about now.

The excitement is fading.
The routine feels like a grind.
You're missing sessions.
You're telling yourself "I'll get back to it tomorrow."

I know, because I've been there.

Not with dog training (that's my job, so I don't really have a choice). But with everything else.

10 years ago, I quit my aerospace job to start Elevated Canine Academy.

And let me tell you: The first year was brutal.

I had quit a stable job making $80-90K a year. I had a family to support. I was building a business from my living room with zero clients and zero reputation.

The first few months? I was ON FIRE.

I was excited. I was motivated. I was working 12-hour days and loving it.

And then reality hit.

The excitement wore off. The grind set in. I started questioning everything. "Did I make the right choice? Should I go back to aerospace? What if this doesn't work?"

I wanted to quit. Multiple times.

But I didn't.

Not because I was more talented or more disciplined than anyone else.

I kept going because I built systems that made showing up automatic.

And that's what I want to talk about today.

Here's why most New Year's resolutions fail:

People treat them as something they ADD to their life.

"I'm going to train my dog every day."
"I'm going to hit the gym 5x per week."
"I'm going to meal prep on Sundays."

But your life is already full.

Work. Family. Errands. Obligations. Netflix. Scrolling Instagram.

So when you try to ADD one more thing - even a good thing - it requires willpower.

And willpower runs out.

That's why Week 4 of January is when most people quit.

The initial excitement has worn off. The habit hasn't formed yet. And it takes EFFORT to keep showing up.

So they stop.

The solution? Stop trying to add training to your life. Start integrating it INTO your life.

If you want training to stick - not just for January, but for the rest of your dog's life - you need to make it automatic.

Here's how:

1. Meal Time = Training Time

This is the easiest one.

Your dog eats every day. Probably twice a day.

Instead of just pouring food in a bowl and walking away, make your dog work for it.

Before the meal:

2 minutes. That's it.

You're not adding time to your day. You're using time you already have.

And your dog learns that NOTHING is free. Everything is earned.

2. Door Thresholds = Impulse Control

Every time you walk through a door with your dog - front door, back door, car door, crate door - your dog waits.

You go through first. Then you release them.

No command needed after a couple weeks. It just becomes automatic.

Your dog learns: "Doors mean impulse control."

And you're practicing impulse control 10-20 times per day without even thinking about it.

3. Walk Routines = Consistency

Don't switch up your walk route every single day.

Pick ONE route. Walk it consistently. Same route, same expectations, same markers.

Why?

Because consistency is how dogs learn.

When everything is always changing, your dog is always in learning mode. They never get to practice.

But when the route is the same, they start anticipating. "Oh, we always sit at this corner. We always wait at this crosswalk. We always heel past this dog park."

The behavior becomes automatic for THEM, which makes it automatic for YOU.

4. Play = Rewards

Stop separating training and play.

Play IS training when you do it right.

Use toys as rewards for commands. Make recall a game. Turn fetch into impulse control practice (sit/stay before throw, recall before they get the ball back).

Your dog doesn't know the difference between "training time" and "play time."

They just know: "When I work with my handler, good things happen."

5. Impulse Control Games = Daily Habit

These take 5 minutes. That's it.

5 minutes a day.

But it compounds.

5 minutes/day = 35 minutes/week = 150 minutes/month = 30 hours/year.

30 hours of impulse control work. Just from 5-minute games.

That's more than most people do in their dog's entire life.

Let me show you what this looks like in my life with Ezra.

Morning:

Total time: 5.5 minutes.

Afternoon:

Total time: 20 minutes.

Evening:

Total time: 5 minutes.

Daily total: 30.5 minutes.

That's it.

I'm not doing hour-long training sessions. I'm not adding a ton of extra time to my day.

I'm just integrating training into things I'm already doing.

And because it's automatic, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to motivate myself. I just do it.

That's how you make training sustainable.

If you started strong in January and you've already fallen off the wagon, here's what you do:

Don't try to jump back in at 100%.

That's what got you here in the first place.

You went too hard, too fast, and burned out.

Instead, pick ONE thing from the list above.

Just one.

Meal time training. That's it.

Do that for one week. Make it automatic.

Then add door thresholds the next week.

Then walk routines the week after that.

Build the habit slowly. Make it sustainable.

Because here's the thing:

Training your dog isn't a sprint. It's a marathon.

The person who trains consistently for 10 years will have a better dog than the person who goes hard for 3 months and burns out.

Slow and steady wins.

We're about to flip the calendar to February.

New month. Fresh start.

If January didn't go the way you wanted, that's okay. You get a do-over.

But this time, don't try to add training to your life.

Integrate it into your life.

Make it automatic. Make it sustainable. Make it something you can do for the next 10 years, not just the next 10 weeks.

Hit reply and tell me: What's ONE training habit you're committing to for February?

Just one. Keep it simple.

I'll reply back with my thoughts.

Elevate your mind, elevate your canine.

— Oscar Mora
Elevated Canine Academy

P.S. If you're feeling overwhelmed and you want professional help, we're accepting new Board & Train clients for February.

Reply to this email if you want to talk about what that looks like.

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