Shamu Article

Shamu Marriage Training

            This article is about a woman that is annoyed by her husband’s bad habits. Her husband, Scott, always left his dirty laundry on the floor and he would misplace his car keys. Scott ran around the house in a loud and disruptive behavior because he was irritated that he could not find his keys. Amy learned to ignore him when he was in this situation. Amy wrote “it took a lot of discipline to maintain my calm, but results were immediate and stunning. His temper fell far shy of its usual pitch and then waned like a fast-moving storm. I felt as if I should throw him a mackerel”. Amy would stop picking up his dirty clothes off the floor. Then after a while Scott began to pick up a few pieces of clothes. Amy gave him a positive reinforcement such as a thank you or a kiss. She was using the technique we learned in class called shaping or “approximation”. She rewarded the small steps toward learning a new behavior.

            Amy used the techniques the dolphin trainer used on the dolphins. She rewarded the behaviors she liked and ignored behaviors she did not. When I first read the article I thought she was a stereotypical wife wanting to change her husband. Actually, she is a really smart woman who used the simple technique most mothers use on their children to get them to behave. The training worked well on her husband. He became less irritated all the time. He was easier for Amy to love when he was happy and less disruptive. They began to live a happier and enjoyable marriage together.

            Overall, I agreed with her training methods used in the article. Although, they may not work for every one in every situation they worked great for Amy. Amy told her husband about what she was up too and he really took in the information. Scott began to train Amy the way she had done him. In the future, I may consider trying these techniques on my children or wife. I believe they will work on the smaller less important situations.