What Shamu Taught Me About Life: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers by Amy Sutherland
Amy Sutherland . Unknown Year . English
While observing trainers of exotic animals, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used their techniques with the human animals in her own life–specifically her dear husband, Scott? As Sutherland put training principles into action, she noticed that not only did her twelve-year-old marriage improve, but she herself became more optimistic and less judgmental. 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. Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage reveals the biggest lesson Sutherland learned: The only animal you can truly change is yourself.
Categories: Action & Adventure
About the Author
I left my career as a newspaper features writer behind in 2001 to write the first of my four books, "Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America". For a year I crisscrossed the country interviewing chili heads, cowboys, state fair cooking champs, and a few cheats. Next I headed to Moorpark Community College in southern California, where the top school for exotic animal trainers can be found, for "Kicked Bitten and Scratched". My book chronicles the year I shadowed students through this improbable, magical, grueling program. I met my first binturong. I went on walks with the baboons, the cougars and the wolf. I learned a lot about every species, including our own, which became apparent when I wrote a column for the New York Times on how I improved my marriage by using animal training techniques I had learned at the school. That column became the basis for my next book, "What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage." With my most recent book I returned again to the intersection of animal and human behavior. In "Rescuing Penny Jane" I wrote about my many years as a shelter volunteer working with dogs and what it would take to find all these lovely critters the homes they deserve. I never had to look far for inspiration as my two canine assistants, Walter Joe and Penny Jane, kept me company in my office everyday.
