How women are learning to control their men: operant conditioning!

"Bring Your Husband to Heel" is a BBC television program only, not a book (as of yet, anyway).

I got this email last night from Andy Bondy, a well-known behavior analyst, and his wife. They have a great take on "Bring your husband to heel." :

Lori and I are in England and we're watching a show on BBC called "How to
bring your husband to heel"- pure clicker training! I've not seen this one-
the woman (Annie from Annie's dog training school) first teaches women to
work with dogs via clicking and shaping and then turns them loose on their
husbands! It is like one of our 'reality' shows in that it includes video
from within the home. It is truly hysterical- especially when they reveal
all to the hubby!

It was 'spot on'- total emphasis on reinforcement, ignore 'other' behaviors, demonstrated shaping pretty well and clicked frequently. Lori liked that each time the wife
praised her husband a clicker appeared on the screen with an audible click!
I hope the show makes it to the states!
Andy Bondy

People were up in arms at the very idea of training a person the way you would a dog, etc. Lots of references to feminism as well.

In fact the show does not use ‘traditional obedience training’ at all, although even the producers seem to say that. The trainer is teaching the wives how to use the principles of clicker training; positive reinforcement for everything, breaking behavior down into increments and just asking for a little at a time, making sure the cue is understood, ignoring mistakes, and so on. The problems are untidiness, not helping, and so on. The wife learns to use observation and reinforcement (smiles, hugs) instead of nagging and anger! The husbands generally are vastly relieved and not a bit demeaned. People who are attacking the show either haven’t watched it, or watched it without understanding what was happening.

Kay Laurence and I were both approached, last year, about working on what I presume was this show; I declined but Kay I think has contributed as a consultant, and indeed the training of the trainers is just what you would want to see. A LONG way from people’s image of ‘dog training,’ but they attack on the basis of the image, not the reality.

Karen Pryor