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What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | 
| Author: Amy Sutherland
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $10.79
You Save: $7.21 (40%)
New (28) Used (9) from $10.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 4308
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1400066581
Dewey Decimal Number: 158.2
EAN: 9781400066582
ASIN: 1400066581
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Also Available In:
| • | Audio CD - What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | | • | CD-ROM - What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | | • | Audio Cassette - What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | | • | Audio Cassette - What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | | • | Audio CD - What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers | | • | Kindle Edition - What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers |
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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 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Shamu: funny, interesting, and downright useful May 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Amy Sutherland takes on the perennial question of how to deal with the misbehavior of other people, by telling us about the positive training methods used by dolphin trainers and other modern hi-tech animal folks. Amy shows us, through personal experiences, how one can learn to use reinforcement, instead of the more obvious manipulations of whining, nagging, sulking, scolding, and so on. Changing the behavior of others starts by changing your own behavior.
"What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage" is funny, interesting, and downright useful. The next time your friends and relatives are driving you crazy, take a look at this delicious quick read. Perhaps you can stop letting your inner ape out all the time and get better results by using whale-training methods instead.
Karen Pryor, author of Don't Shoot the Dog: the new art of teaching and training
wise and very funny May 16, 2008
I got on line today to get another copy of "Shamu" for a friend's birthday and was surprised to see the negative review. I loved the original article in the NYT and was delighted to see that the author had expanded her thesis to book length. This is not a self help "how to," it's just great storytelling and old fashioned insight. I have actually applied these insights in my own complicated daily relationships, and have found them quite helpful. I also loved her earlier books--"Cookoff" and the one about the wild animal training school. Sutherland is far more like Nora Ephron than Dr. Phil. I enjoy the quirky turn of her mind and unusual subjects.
Why read this book? May 15, 2008
This book seems to have landed squarely in a strange space between entertainment, self-help and animal training. It isn't a textbook for the latter two but shares some great information. If you're training an animal or need serious personal help then this isn't the book for you. If you are looking for a entertaining, revealing and, occassionally, profound read then I reccomend this book.
The author shares her experience with taking animal training techniques into her life and the impact those lessons have on her immediate family. The change isn't around her but in her. I wanted more, not technical information, but personal information because I think the depth of those changes were just beginning. I think those changes are starting to happen to me as well.
 one stretched out column May 14, 2008
I loved the column Amy Sutherland wrote for the New York Times so I ordered the book for myself and two more to give away to friends. The book is the same column but streched out to fill a whole book with it. Disappointing.
fun read May 1, 2008
Hilarious and insightful, who would have known that you can train people as easily as pets? Quite enjoyable to read, Amy has a real way with words and provides some great lessons through her venture.
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