If you haven’t read through all of the “about me” information on my site, you may not know that over the last fifteen or so years, I’ve also worked as a marine mammal trainer and dog trainer. For the last four years, I’ve taught people how to train their dogs using positive reinforcement training techniques. Having been initially trained by the staff at a marine life park, I’ve always been a reward based trainer. In my heart I believe, and through practice with hundreds of dogs, I know, that it’s possible to change behavior without using coercion and positive punishment. This is a topic that is dear to my heart.
In a recent forum discussion, someone asked about how the concepts of operant conditioning using the R+ quadrant apply outside of dog training and I put together some links and information that I thought my readers here might also find interesting.
One of the seminal works for the lay person is Karen Pryor’s book, Don’t Shoot the Dog. For many people who are positive trainers, this was the first book they read and the one that inspired them to follow the path of non-coercion. It’s a great book that talks about how we can use the concepts used in marine mammal training to improve relationships with our spouses, co-workers, bosses, dolphins, kids and dogs.
More recently, Amy Sutherland wrote an article for the NY Times that evolved into the book, What Shamu taught me about Life, Love and Marriage. While doing research for her book, Kicked, Bitten and Scratched, she was exposed to how zookeepers use behavior modification to manage the animals they care for. She follows up on this by exploring the idea of using the principles of operant conditioning to get her husband to pick up his socks (and other things)! She shares a variety of stories about how these principles affect our lives in ways that we might not even expect. (here’s a direct link to the NYTimes article.)
The book Whale Done! was written by a couple of Sea World marine mammal trainers to help managers improve the performance of their employees using the science of behavior modification.
Karen Pryor’s organization has started a program called Tag Teach. It’s a way of using the same concepts as clicker training to help kids master complex skills.
Although she focuses primarily on animals in her more mainstream writing, Temple Grandin writes about behavior with unique insight. She always makes me think and adjust my perspective on concepts that I thought I understood!
And what about parenting? Or working with kids in a classroom? There is an interesting article available online that is partly based on the work of Murray Sidman. A Teaching Approach to Discipline explores the concepts of reward and punishment in the context of working with kids. (This article also has a complete bibliography listed.)
Several years ago, I had the privilege of attending several sessions with Kathy Sdao. Kathy is an incredibly motivating speaker. She brings to her lectures a sense of all the good that is possible if we seek out kindness and respect in all that we do when we interact with other people and creatures. On her recommendation, I read the book, Coercion and it’s Fallout by Murray Sidman. This book looks at the effects of using the P+ quadrant and extrapolates how this affects individuals and our community both on a local and global scale. His premise is that we live in a world which defaults to coercive tactics to manage and control it’s populations. Perhaps it’s human nature – or perhaps we can do better if we can imagine what is possible.