Review

ÔÇ£Playful, passionate, and practical.ÔÇØÔÇöRedbook

ÔÇ£A compelling argument for using techniques from animal trainers to help change bad habits and improve relationships.ÔÇØÔÇöAtlanta Journal-Constitution

ÔÇ£SutherlandÔÇÖs a smart, engaging writer, and her stories about the hows and whys of exotic animal training are fun and fascinating.ÔÇØÔÇöBoston Sunday Globe

ÔÇ£Part self-help guide, part animal psychology textbook and part memoir . . . Sutherland has a breezy style.ÔÇØÔÇöNew York Times Book Review

ÔÇ£In the little, private zoo known as marriage, it helps to remind yourself that you and your partner are just two bipedal primates trying to get along in intimate co-habitation.ÔÇØÔÇöGlobe and Mail

ÔÇ£Wise and pragmatic advice . . . The thing I love most about this book is that every other paragraph, SutherlandÔÇÖs terrific wordsmithing, compelling logic, and anecdotes about exotic animals make me feel like sheÔÇÖs tossed me a biscuit.ÔÇØÔÇöMartha Beck, author of Steering by Starlight and columnist for O: The Oprah Magazine

ÔÇ£Hilarious and persuasive.ÔÇØÔÇöGood Housekeeping

ÔÇ£Invaluable . . . It succeeds nicely as an animal-training guide, and amusingly as a relationship book.ÔÇØÔÇöBuffalo News

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Description

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 lifeÔÇônamely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainersÔÇÖ lessons home.

The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the house in search of his mislaid car keys, she asked herself, ÔÇ£What would a dolphin trainer do?ÔÇØ The answer was: nothing. Trainers reward the behavior they want and, just as important, ignore the behavior they donÔÇÖt. Rather than appease her mateÔÇÖs 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. ÔÇ£I felt like I should throw him a mackerel,ÔÇØ 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 SutherlandÔÇÖs 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.

From the Hardcover edition.