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God, I Love a Quick Fix
Let me start by saying fuck me, I love a quick fix. Of course I do! Life is busy, messy, kind shite atm and hard, and chances are you, like me, are juggling twenty million things at once.
Wanting something that solves a problem faster, with less effort and less stress, is completely understandable.
There is absolutely no shame in wanting something that sorts a problem quickly with less effort and less stress. Why on earth would I not want that? Of course I want that. I do it with my emails, my booking systems and my shopping, automation and at a click of button.
The pull toward fixing something fast is not a character flaw nor is it a moral failing; it is a perfectly ordinary human response to overload. Wanting a quick fix does not signal laziness, lack of commitment, or indifference toward your dog or horse, or even yourself. It reflects a nervous system oriented toward predictability, relief from aversive states, and restoration of a sense of control. i.e. you need relief & recovery before you can succeed.
And I’m right there with you, I do it too. I’m also here to tell you there are actually quick fixes out there, but go by a different name, they are called “Quick wins”
The Boiler and January in Ireland
Right, so it is January, mid‑winter in Ireland. The house is cold, the boiler is not playing ball, and the simple fact of being cold is already pushing your stress levels up before you even make a decision, Hi homeostasis, nice to see you.
You contact two service providers.
One suggests a long, expensive repair over several visits, and you could be without heat for weeks. The other says they can come tomorrow, do it faster and cheaper, and your heating will be back on. Most people choose the second option, and of course they do I would! Of course you want your heating sorted quickly and for less money. That isn’t moral weakness; it is rational behaviour when you are under physical stress and time pressure.
Psychology 101
- Bounded rationality: You make the best decision you can with the time, energy, and information you have in that moment.
If the rapid solution (fancy words for quick fix) later fails and the boiler breaks again, you take in that new information, adjust your expectations, and you may make a different choice next time. In other words, if the fast, cheap option wasn’t good enough, you learn from it and choose differently in the future.
This is called experiential learning, not failure. Humans work with bounded rationality, in that we make the best decision we can with the information we have at that time, prior experiences, resources, and emotional bandwidth we have at THAT moment in time.
What the Brain Is Doing When You Want a ‘Quick Fix’
Psychology helps us make sense of this, very normal, idea.
Human decision‑making is shaped by some very well‑known processes in science. We tend to value immediate outcomes more than delayed ones (this is called temporal discounting see below). It is the “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” problem and stress makes this even stronger. When we are under any kind of pressure, the wish to have things sorted as soon as possible increases.
Psychology 101
- Temporal discounting: Our brains naturally prefer relief now instead of relief later. It’s not weakness, it’s wiring. It’s your brain doing the right thing to support you in the momement.
“When you’re stressed, ‘later’ feels useless and ‘now’ feels necessary.”
When we are under cognitive load, tired, worried, embarrassed, anxious, or feeling under threat, our working memory and problem‑solving abilities are reduced. In other words, it becomes much harder to think creatively or “outside the box” for alternative solutions to the problem and simple solutions feel far more appealing. And safe.
Wanting something easy in those moments is not laziness; it is your brain and body trying to conserve energy and keep you going during a difficult time.
Psychology 101
- Cognitive load: When your brain is overloaded, it doesn’t stop working, it just stops working creatively. You are in survial mode and that is ok.
“Stress shrinks your thinking space. Simple choices feel safer because your brain is busy surviving”
We also behave as predictive animals, using our past learning to guess what is most likely to happen next. Past experience shapes future behaviour, this is often said as past experiences strongly influence future behaviour. If a quick solution worked before, we are likely to try it again; if it didn’t, we usually change approach. When you catch yourself thinking, “I just need this sorted now,” that is a normal stress response, not a personal failing, it is biology and your brain at work.
Psychology 101
Adaptive energy-conservation strategy: Choosing the easier option when you’re exhausted isn’t laziness , it’s your brain trying to protect your energy and you from further stress.
Past learning predicts future choices: Your brain is always asking, ‘What happened last time? Can I do better next time?’ and making choices from there.
“If something worked before, your brain says, ‘Do that again.’ If it didn’t, it says, ‘Try something else.’”
The Shame Problem in Animal Behaviour
Within animal behaviour communities, the phrase “quick fix” is sometimes delivered with an undertone of judgement. This is not because we are judging, but because we can see the path forward to future success and hate the fake fixes hindering your progress.
Dog and horse owners can feel labelled as uncommitted simply because they want change to happen quickly, I hope by now I have imparted on you that is is not a failing, but instead a clear commitment to change. Yet most people seek behavioural help only when the situation is already complex, emotionally demanding, or feels unsafe and they genuinely need a quick fix. By the time support is requested, the metaphorical boiler is not just slightly faulty , it is thoroughly broken.
Professionals often see the “forest” while guardians understandably see only the immediate “tree”, both are important.
Your training history, your experiences with other trainers or behaviourists, and your emotional state during those sessions all have an effect on your ability to believe this time will be differient. Add in health factors, the environment, and reinforcement patterns, and there is a lot going on that may be obvious to a professional but completely overwhelming when you are the one living it every day.
Our role, is not to bury you under our entire case formulation in one sitting, it’s simply too much and unhelpful. We don’t expect anyone to learn French in a two‑hour consultation, so we can’t expect you to absorb everything about behaviour science in one go either.
Effective practice means pacing information, focusing on quick wins, and building support around you. That includes creating scaffolding, helping both you and your animal learn at a manageable rate, and doing it without shame.
Insight without compassion quickly becomes counter‑therapeutic, basically, it stops helping.
Psychology 101
- Scaffolding: Scaffolding means we don’t expect you to do everything at once , we build the supports and then remove them when you’re ready.
Are There Quick Fixes in Behaviour?
Spoliers, Yes
Although the helpful ones are better, I would describe them as quick wins, a quick win is what we actually want, not a quick fix. Not so much (even medical issue aren’t a quick fix. Ever broken a bone? Was it quick?)
These are targeted changes to management, the environment, or what happens before the behaviour (the antecedents) that create real improvement quite quickly while still respecting our animals’ welfare. They might involve modifying daily routines, adjusting housing or turnout arrangements, changing equipment such as harnesses, headcollars, bits, saddles or bridles, or temporarily reducing exposure to specific triggers. The list is endless lads….
Quick wins do not claim to resolve every maintaining variable in a behaviour pattern or diagnose the issue for long‑term solutions. Instead, they reduce stress, increase safety right now, and create psychological space for more comprehensive intervention and longer‑term goals. When arousal drops, learning becomes possible, for animals and humans alike, and it also supports long‑term motivation for us humans.
We will come back to motivation, because it is key here.
Psychology 101
- Arousal and learning relationship: Stressed brains don’t learn well. Calmer brains do. Lower the stress first, the learning follows. That’s both our animals and us btw.
Quick Wins as Motivation Fuel
Motivation is not a fixed trait, it ebs and flows babe.
We aren’t and can’t be endlessly motivated. Motivation is a dynamic state that changes across situations and over time. Today I will clean the house and be a good child, tomorrow the dishwasher can get fucked.
Psychology 101
- Motivation is dynamic, not permanent: Nobody is motivated all the time. Motivation comes and goes, and that’s completely normal. #dishwashercangetfucked
Each small success teaches your brain: ‘I can actually do this.’
Large, far‑off goals, whether behaviour change plans, fitness targets, or major lifestyle shifts, take a lot of effort and the rewards arrive slowly. It’s no surprise that sticking with them gets harder when the reinforcement is delayed.
Quick wins function as proximal reinforcers, the right‑here‑and‑now rewards. Small, attainable achievements provide immediate feedback for your brain and give you more motivation for the bigger goals.
Psychology 101
- Proximal reinforcers: Small wins give your brain a ‘this is working’ signal, and that keeps you going.
“Big goals take time, are hard, and the reward comes later.”
Quick wins strengthen self‑efficacy (the belief that you can succeed, because you can) and reduce the likelihood of disengagement. These experiences matter neurobiologically and psychologically; they are not trivial. They are the fuel that sustains engagement with longer‑term programmes.
Water and a Piece of Fruit
January resolution to “get fitter” or “lose weight”, seen it done it failed it. The global goal is complex and multifactorial, big goal long term rewards. Yet if we just got up and did a single actionable step: drinking a glass of water and eating a piece of fruit on waking. That would actually be meaningful behavioural commitment.
- This micro‑behaviour shapes identity: the individual experiences themselves as someone capable of initiating self‑care. Sustainable change is built upon repeated, achievable steps, not dramatic leaps.
MEGA (Make Enrichement Great Again)
For dogs who chew destructively, eliminate indoors, react on lead, bark persistently, pull, or struggle with separation, guardians can feel overwhelmed.
Effective intervention rarely begins with solving everything simultaneously.
A quick win might be as straightforward as replacing bowl feeding with a Kong or other enrichment feeder. This change meets species‑typical needs, chewing, licking, foraging, problem‑solving, activates predatory motor patterns in appropriate ways, and reduces frustration and arousal.
The dog experiences improved welfare; the guardian experiences relief and competence. That combination powerfully supports further training.
The Hack & Snack (Pending Trade Mark 🤭)
With horses who nap, spook, or escalate during hacks, often paired with a nervous rider, pressure to “push through” is common. A reframed objective can be transformative. Ditch the patriarchal “Kick on and carry on”, you have a brain and don’t need that.
Choosing an in‑hand walk around the yard rather than a full hack, it lowers emotional intensity while still building exposure, fitness, and relational safety. This is not avoidance It is the smart move based on science. It is a graded exposure and regulation approach. Calm repetitions reshape both partners’ learning histories.
Graded exposure: You don’t have to jump to the hardest version of a situation. You can build confidence one small step at a time.
Quick Fixes Are Harmful and Quick Wins Are Helpful
Not all rapid change strategies are harmful, this is where quick wins come in. While some approaches aim only to suppress behaviour, often through pain, fear, or intimidation, quick wins don’t. Quick fixes may produce short‑term quiet, but the underlying emotions remain untouched or unchanged meaning it’ll come back (boiler) or get worse over time.
In quick fix cases, the behaviour disappears because expressing it has become unsafe, not because the feeling has changed or we have solved the issue. Think of it like saying you are “quitting doughnuts in January” at work and managing not to eat them there, but then going home sad and eating them anyway, the emotion is still present, just displaced.
Psychology 101
- Behaviour suppression: If behaviour disappears but the feeling doesn’t, it hasn’t been solved, it’s just gone quiet. Quietly hiding.
Such suppression carries real risks, for us and our animals, this presents as increased anxiety, frustration or aggression, learned helplessness, and damage to the human–animal relationship. It also fails to address the real issue underneath the behaviour and fails our long term goals.
Quick wins, by contrast, prioritise welfare and function. Think of it like deciding that you can in fact have a doughnut on a Friday, and if you want to, you might even invite your colleagues to join you and make it social. You are meeting a need in a way that lowers pressure instead of hiding it.
Quick wins decrease stress, meet behavioural needs, enhance predictability, and improve safety while preparing the ground for deeper behaviour modification. They don’t deny the complexity of the case; they stabilise things enough that ethical, evidence‑based work can move forward.
What Good Support Should Feel Like
High‑quality behaviour support should not resemble chastisement or an impossible task list. That does nothing for no one.
Good support should feel collaborative, paced, and compassionate. Good support recognises that there are always two learners in the room, the animal and the human, and both nervous systems matter, both people matter (two or four legged). The tone of the work is as important as the technical content. You should feel accompanied rather than judged, guided rather than directed, and understood rather than evaluated.
In practice, this looks like co‑constructing goals rather than having them imposed. A skilled behaviourist or psychologist breaks large aims into clearly defined, achievable components and revisits them regularly, checking that they still fit your life and your values. They help you identify early indicators of progress, not just end‑points, subtle changes in affect, latency, recovery time, or ease of management, so reinforcement is present for you as well as your animal. They pace the work, break it downn into achieveable steps. Our job is to deliberately avoiding overwhelming you with theory or homework, and they respond to fluctuations in capacity by scaling plans up or down without blame.
Good support is also consent‑based and transparent. You should know why each recommendation is being made, what alternatives exist, and what the likely costs and benefits are. The professional invites questions, explains concepts in accessible language, and welcomes collaboration with your wider team, veterinarians, trainers, physiotherapists, when health, pain, or environmental factors are relevant. Trauma‑informed practice acknowledges prior negative experiences with professionals and makes space for those stories without pathologising them.
Therapeutic relationship matters: Good behaviour work is not just about techniques , it’s about feeling safe enough to try.
Importantly, effective support considers ecology, not just behaviour:
- sleep
- pain
- diet
- exercise
- predictability
- agency
- enrichment
It recognises that change occurs within real constraints, time, finances, disability, family demands, and adapts intervention accordingly. The relationship itself becomes a therapeutic tool; empathy, reliability, and clear boundaries foster psychological safety, which in turn enables learning.
If your experience of support has not felt like this, if you feel shamed, rushed, dismissed, or chronically overwhelmed, it is appropriate to reconsider the fit.
When I meet new clients, I am clear, we may work together for some time, and if I am not the right person for you, that is entirely acceptable. Seeking a different professional is not a failure; it is an exercise of agency you have embraced. The right practitioner is the one who meets you where you are, supports you from there, and helps you build competence and confidence as well as behavioural change. That alignment is central to ethical practice and to sustainable, humane outcomes for both you and your animal.
The wish for quick fixes is normal, rather than rejecting it, we can channel it productively. Reframing quick fixes as quick wins allows us to honour that desire while grounding our work in behavioural science, welfare, and realistic processes of change. These small, strategic adjustments protect motivation, support the human–animal bond, and open the door to durable improvement.
Behaviour change need not feel like scaling a mountain alone in January rain. It can feel like a sequence of intentional, supported steps taken with clarity and compassion, for you and for the animals in your care.
