Training the American Husband

I read this article last night by Amy Sutherland and thought it was really interesting. It's titled "What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage" and it's about how one woman "trained" her husband. She learned certain things that trainers do with their animals while collecting information about a book. She talks about the key things that they did with the animals to train them to do certain, usually uncharacteristic things (like teaching dolphins to pirouette) by responding (or in some cases not responding) to the animals behavior.

I have been pondering what I read all day. While I don't have a husband or children, I am constantly interacting with many different people. At work, the girls I coach, at church, my family and friends. I feel as though I am always talking to someone about something. Could I really accentuate characteristics in people simply by the way I respond to them?

The author mentions that the effects were far from an over-night transformation. I don't think that I'm in contact with any one person frequently enough or for a long enough time span to have any kind of drastic impact on their behavior. But, I think the principle is the same: people like being appreciated and acknowledged when they do things right. It's been said that it's best to "catch people doing right". I think that is going to be my new goal. Take time out to appreciate when people do something right and make sure that they get attention for it. And, maybe if I start practicing on the boyfriend now, by the time we get married I'll have a perfectly trained American Husband! (or maybe that is just wishful thinking)