While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed
book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy
Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training
techniques with the human animals in her own life–namely her
dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book,
Sutherland tells how she took the trainers’ lessons home.
The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the
house in search of his mislaid car keys, she asked herself,
“What would a dolphin trainer do?” The answer was: nothing.
Trainers reward the behavior they want and, just as
important, ignore the behavior they don’t. Rather than
appease her mate’s rising temper by joining in the search,
or fuel his temper by nagging him to keep better track of
his things in the first place, Sutherland kept her mouth
shut and her eyes on the dishes she was washing. In short
order, Scott found his keys and regained his cool. “I felt
like I should throw him a mackerel,” she writes. In time, as
she put more training principles into action, she noticed
that she became more optimistic and less judgmental, and
their twelve-year marriage was better than ever.
What started as a goofy experiment had such good results
that Sutherland began using the training techniques with all
the people in her life, including her mother, her friends,
her students, even the clerk at the post office. In the end,
the biggest lesson she learned is that the only animal you
can truly change is yourself.
Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious
anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About
Life, Love, and Marriage describes Sutherland’s
Alice-in-Wonderland experience of stumbling into a world
where cheetahs walk nicely on leashes and elephants paint
with watercolors, and of leaving a new, improved Homo sapiens.
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