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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sit, honey. Stay. Good boy!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amy Sutherland was researching a book about animal training at a zoo for a possible book, when she came up with a far better idea. Why not take the techniques used to get animals to behave in certain ways, and use them on that species of animal known as homo sapiens? And why not start with her own husband?
The resulting experiment was at first a very popular New York Times column, and now a book getting some major attention: “What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers.”
Sutherland’s book tour will bring her here at 7:30 p.m. on March 5 at the Snellville Borders (1929 Scenic Highway) for what could be a lively reading.
A lot of what Sutherland did was really basic conditioning, known to anybody who studied Pavlov or B.F. Skinner. Ignore the bad behavior, praise the good behavior. If you’re a smart parent or you’ve had any success with a puppy, you’ve tried at least some of this. Sutherland’s breakthrough was to do it systematically and within a loving marriage, and to write about it with a sense of humor and affection.
Several questions arise from this experiment: Is it morally appropriate to be so manipulative within a marriage? Is manipulation inevitable in a relationship, and this is just a benevolent version? And the one that cuts to the knuckle: Have you ever successfully changed a significant other’s behavior, and how did you do it?
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