There’s nothing fishy about a new parenting book based on whale training.
It’s all in the positive reinforcement, said Chuck Tompkins, co-author of “Whale Done Parenting” and longtime animal trainer at SeaWorld Orlando.
During his early years, trainers could make the mammoth mammals do tricks, but there wasn’t a one-on-one connection, he said.
“We had to develop these very new and innovative ways of developing positive reinforcement with these animals,” Tompkins said.
Although whales are rewarded with fish during shows, food isn’t what makes the relationship with the trainer click. The whales like toys and back rubs, Tompkins said.
“Food is reinforcement that we give them throughout the entire day because it’s something they need,” he said. “What they really love is interaction with their trainers.
“We really use that to our advantage to make sure that we appropriately give them our attention when they’re doing the right things. When they’re doing the wrong things, we ignore them.”
Tompkins, who started at SeaWorld 33 years ago, had years of experience with whales before he became a father. He and his wife have two sons.
“As I started to have children, I realized that these same fundamentals apply,” he said. “I set our kids up for success. I didn’t wait for them to do things wrong and have a punishment schedule ready.
“We told them all the things we wanted to have done right, and then we had a reinforcement schedule ready for them.
“Instead of doing things wrong to get attention, they did things right to get attention.”
Cody Tompkins, Chuck’s 21-year-old son, tells his dad that the strategy worked with him.
“You having the proper relationship with me, made me want to please you more,” Cody Tompkins said.
Chuck Tompkins isn’t a fan of corporal punishment.
“We never spanked our kids,” he said. “I think that’s one way of correcting behavior, but it’s short-minded, and there’s a lot of psychological things that can occur with that.”
Instead, he and his wife used time-outs and redirection “to good things they could do.”
“Whale Done Parenting” is Tompkins’ second book. The first, “Whale Done,” published in 2002, dealt with using positive relationships in the workplace. It sold more than 1 million copies.
“I’m not about how many books get sold. I’m more about getting these concepts out to people who struggle with raising their children,” Tompkins said. “We all go through the learning curve. I was lucky enough to go through the learning curve using what I had learned in how to raise animals.”
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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