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Top 10 ways to train your boyfriend … I mean, dog

I hear dogs are easier to train, but it’s the same concept. Works for husbands, too.

Merry Christmas!

Lindsay Stordahl

Tuesday 30th of December 2008

Haha!

Biggie-Z

Tuesday 30th of December 2008

Here it is! What Shamu taught me about a happy marriage: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25love.html

Biggie-Z

Tuesday 30th of December 2008

HAHAHA!!! I'm right there with Liza - and my hubby is pretty well trained but there are things I can work on. The NY Times actually had a Modern Love column that was one of the most popular columns, where a woman read about operant conditioning as a training technique for orca (Shamu, basically) and then tried it on her husband. It was hilarious.

Lindsay Stordahl

Monday 29th of December 2008

Haha, thanks Liza. You are right! You'd think I'd be better at training my boyfriend ...

Liza S.

Monday 29th of December 2008

Actually, you'd be surprised how many dog training methods can actually work on people! Operant conditioning (such as clicker training), for example - in humans this is usually called 'shaping' - where when a person performs a certain behavior on their own that's close to behavior that you like, you'd praise them for it (For example, in the case of your boyfriend you can praise by saying: "You're so manly when you talk about going to the gym and getting in shape, honey. Would you like a massage?") (or whatever works for you :D.) The boyfriend will pick up on the praise and slowly his behavior will develop more and more into the direction of what you actually want.

Some people call this manipulative and I can definitely see where they're coming from. But in reality, we 'shape' people every day - we respond positively to behaviors we like and this encourages them to continue the behavior.

Phew, quite an essay I wrote there :P.