Front Loading the Work
What does front loading the work mean in the context of training and behavior modification? In a nutshell, this means we start our process by meeting the dog where they really and truly are and progress at the pace they need us to in order for learning and behavior change to be successful.
We use the phrase front loading the work because in many cases, we are doing significantly “more” in the beginning than we will as training and behavior modification progresses, assuming it progresses successfully. More of what depends on the behavior we’re working on. Maybe it’s more or higher value food delivered at a more rapid rate of reinforcement. Maybe it’s more adaptations to the environment or routine to prevent the dog from practicing unwanted behaviors and ensure the dog is able to stay under threshold and in a state where training and behavior modification are possible.
In other cases, it may actually be more accurate to say we need to do “less" up front or to slow things down for our dog. This relates back to the concept of keeping our dog in a healthy emotional state where learning is possible. For some dogs, that means slowing down our training process and lowering our criteria, raising it only as the dog is genuinely ready for the next step.
It also means implementing our training plans and procedures with fidelity. For example, if we are engaging in counter conditioning and desensitization to change our dog’s emotional response to something they find stressful, we need to be doing this *with fidelity* whenever that stressful trigger is present and need to be careful that we are not pushing our dog too far, too fast and having them continue to practice a negative emotional response around that stressful trigger.
What behaviors is the concept of front loading the work relevant to? All of them! We use this for everything from rewarding successful approximations when teaching a new cue and slowly raising our criteria as the dog is ready, then fading our rate of reinforcement to a maintenance level once they’ve nailed that cue (this is true for behaviors as simple as learning a sit or a down!) to engaging in more significant behavior modification for behaviors like leash reactivity, defensive aggression, separation anxiety, or resource guarding.
If we want to move our training forward successfully, we need to embrace the idea of front loading the work, going as big (or small) as they need us to early in the training and behavior modification process and maintaining that ethos as we move forward. The risk we face when not fully embracing this and putting our dogs in situations they aren’t ready for or not meeting them with the level of support they need to be successful is stagnation and higher levels of inconsistency in our training journey. That stagnation and inconsistency also often mean frustration for the human side of the equation and that tells us that front loading the work is WORTH IT.
Our dogs can succeed when we set reasonable goals that are fair to them *and* to us and when we set them up to succeed with those goals, adjusting our level of support to where they are in the training and behavior modification process at that moment in time. In some cases, this isn’t really too hard to do. It may just mean changing our mindset a bit and building a better understanding of what forward progress looks like through the filters of behavioral science and our individual dog and circumstances. In other cases, it can be tough to ensure what our dogs need from us also fits with our own lifestyle needs and what we can practically do. If you need help finding a smoother training journey with your dog, we have some ideas for that.
