What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - Assignment Example

Amy Sutherland’s what Shamu taught me about a happy marriage is a reading delight and the conversational writing style is alluring. The story relates to most because most of us have people like Scott in our lives, but what is truly admirable about Amy Sutherland’s story is the unconventional idea of training people the way trainers train animals.Sutherland derived her idea of training her husband while writing a book on exotic animal training and one needs to agree that it was sheer genius on her part to be able to relate to her work and use the training techniques in her personal life and somehow revive her love for her husband.

The theory of approximation or rewards on positive behavior which Sutherland uses on her husband to train him to keep things in place reminds me that the same can be used to teach kids good habits. Sutherland’s description of the “American husband” is truly commendable and it really creates an animal-like image of Scott in the mind. The LRS training, which she uses on her husband to avoid any kind of behavioral response, works towards lowering the negativity between them. She successfully trained her husband to do what she expected of him just like the trained exotic animals she had been writing about.

However, what is amusing is the fact that in the end, Scott started training the American wife which reveals the fact that even animals can alter behavioral pattern of their trainers or masters.It is true that the behavioral pattern of any animal may be altered with the help of ignorance, reinforcement etc and a description of how Sutherlands uses the same at home makes one laugh. However, it made me think whether Sutherland’s initial intention was trying to improve her relationship with Scott or simply try the animal tricks on humans?

Is it right to actually train someone, especially an adult to alter behavior for the sake of saving a relation? Wouldn’t training make the trained person fake and disguise his/her true behavior?