The rules are simple. Reward the behavior you want, ignore the behavior you don’t want. It’s not novel or revolutionary, but its application is a bit unorthodox. This article (you have to pay to read it now, unfortunately) talks about how Amy Sutherland applied the techniques used to train Shamu the killer whale on her husband. Then she wrote a book about it, titled What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage.

While it’s traditionally applied in parenting or animal training, the reason it’s used in those areas is because it works. It can be harder to ignore behavior from a spouse than from a killer whale, but if you can learn to ignore the behavior you don’t like, I’m confident the results will be positive.

I think it’s a good idea, and wouldn’t mind having a few tasty treats thrown my way when I’ve done something worthy of praise.