A 7-day real-life dog training challenge starting Monday 25th May!

Starting Monday 25th May, we’re running a simple 7-day challenge designed to help owners improve calmness, engagement, communication and overall mindset with their dogs through small, realistic daily exercises.

The idea is simple:
You add just 10 intentional minutes a day - alongside your normal routine.

The whole point of this challenge isn’t to try and show perfection, focus on strict obedience or get frustrated spending long sessions on training - it’s all about setting intentions, observing our dog’s responses and most importantly, learning and ENJOYING time with our dogs.

Whether your dog struggles with over-arousal, impulse control, switching off, engagement outside, or simply needs more structure in daily life - this challenge is designed to help you start focusing on the little things that often have the biggest impact.

You can start with us from Day 1 on Monday 25th May, or jump in at any point and work through the challenge in your own time!

Why we’re running this challenge

At ASCENDK9, we focus heavily on real-life dog training that owners can actually apply day-to-day.

We often see the biggest improvements when owners:

simplify things
become more consistent
create better structure
and start being more intentional in everyday moments with their dog

This challenge is designed to help owners start building those habits in a realistic and achievable way.

Share your progress with us!

One of the best parts of challenges like this is seeing everybody’s progress throughout the week!

If you take part, we’d love to see what you and your dog get up to - whether you start on Day 1 with everyone else or join later and work through it in your own time.

Feel free to share:
- Photos
- Videos
- Wins, struggles or progress updates!

You can post in the client group if you’re an existing client, or share to your socials and tag us:

@ASCENDK9
#ASCENDK9RESET

Myself and my dog Kai will be joining the challenge and sharing our progress throughout the challenge too!

What we’ll be focusing on… and why

Most behaviour improvements don’t come from constantly drilling obedience, spending hours working on behaviours or getting yourself down over the parts of training where you and your dog struggle.

They come from:

clearer communication
better structure
improved impulse control
more intentional interaction
and helping dogs learn how to switch between excitement and calm in everyday life

The ASCENDK9 10 Minute Reset is designed to help owners build more awareness around those areas in a way that actually fits into normal routines.

Each day focuses on one specific area of real-life dog ownership and training.

The 7 Day 10 Minute Reset

Spend just 10 focused minutes a day on one simple training task alongside your normal routine - nothing complicated, just intentional time with your dog.

If you already work on these areas in your everyday life, even better! We’d love for you to share how you do it and join in alongside the challenge.

This is all about small, consistent effort that fits into real life, not replacing what you already do, but adding a bit more structure and awareness where it counts

Day 1 - Use a Meal for Training

Instead of feeding from a bowl today, use one full meal for interaction and engagement.

This could include:

hand feeding
rewarding calmness
engagement work
simple training exercises
recall reps around the house or garden

Why it’s a focus:
Food is one of the easiest ways to build engagement and communication with your dog. When meals become interactive rather than passive, dogs naturally start focusing more on you and learning through everyday moments.

Day 2 - Structured Play With Boundaries

Spend 10 minutes playing with your dog using toys, tug, chase games or whatever they genuinely enjoy.

The focus today is learning how to balance excitement with calmness:

pause the game if your dog becomes too over-aroused
restart once they reconnect calmly
keep the interaction fun but structured

Why it’s a focus:
A lot of dogs struggle to regulate excitement levels. Structured play teaches dogs how to switch between high energy and calmer thinking - which carries over into everyday behaviour.

Day 3 - Refine a Known Behaviour

Choose one behaviour your dog already understands:

sit
down
place
recall
heel position etc.

For 10 minutes:

ask once only
give your dog time to process
help them if needed instead of repeating yourself

Why it’s a focus:
Repeated commands often create confusion and tune dogs out. Clear communication builds better understanding, better focus and more reliable responses.

Day 4 - Practice Doing Nothing

Take your dog somewhere and simply exist together for 10 minutes.

This could be:

a park bench
café edge
outside a shop
a quiet field
or any calm public environment

No constant commands.
No entertaining them.
No over-managing.

Just allow your dog to observe the environment and gradually settle.

Why it’s a focus:
Many dogs struggle to switch off outside the house because they rarely practice it. Calm exposure helps dogs learn neutrality and reduces the feeling that every environment needs a reaction.

Day 5 - Teach Something New

Spend 10 minutes teaching your dog a completely new skill or trick. It doesn’t matter WHAT it is!

Keep it:

fun
positive
reward focused
low pressure

Ideas could include:

spin
middle
paw
bow
chin rest
platform work
weaving through legs

Why it’s a focus:
Learning new things builds engagement, confidence and mental stimulation. It also helps us better understand how our dog learns and processes information.

Day 6 - Impulse Control Focus

For 10 minutes today, pick two everyday situations where your dog struggles with impulse control and work on them calmly and consistently.

Examples:

waiting before food goes down
not rushing through doors
waiting before getting a toy
staying calm before being released from the car
waiting before greeting people

Keep repetitions calm, clear and structured.

Why it’s a focus:
Many behaviour struggles come from poor impulse control rather than lack of obedience. Teaching our dogs to pause, think and wait helps improve overall calmness and decision-making.

Day 7 - The Real Life Reset

Today is about bringing everything together naturally in your normal routine!

Focus on:

calmer starts
clearer communication
structured interaction
rewarding calmness
and more intentional handling throughout the day

Why it’s a focus:
Real behaviour change happens in everyday life - not just during “training sessions”. Today, think about what you have observed and learnt with your dog for the past 6 days and whether you’ve noticed any areas to improve upon, whether having more focused intention with your dog has helped you both work better as a team and most importantly, what aspects you could look to include as part of your daily or weekly routine going forward.

Let us know how you get on!

Sometimes the biggest changes come from slowing things down, being more intentional and focusing on the small moments we normally rush through.

Hopefully this challenge helps you look at a few areas differently, gives you some new ideas to work into your routine and helps you feel more connected to your dog along the way!

If you’ve enjoyed this challenge, we’ll be running more like this throughout the year.

To make sure you don’t miss future ASCENDK9 challenges, training ideas and updates, you can sign up to our email list below.

7 Day Dog Training Challenge | The ASCENDK9 10 Minute Reset