Book Review of What Shamu Taught Me About Life Love and Marriage by Amy Sutherland
< A version of this commodity was published in the January 2020 issue of Downeast Dog News>
< Updated 29DEC19 >
< A short link for this page – http://bit.ly/BookReviewShamu >
In my Dec column, I encouraged you to give your pet the gifts of patience, knowledge, and an attitude that emphasizes frequently rewarding behavior nosotros 
like rather than fixating on our pets when they do something we do not like.
Almost a week afterward I completed my column, Kate and I recorded a Woof Meow Show on the same topic. We discussed books I had recommended where people could acquire knowledge and help them sympathise the importance of patience and rewards. Information technology was and then that Kate reminded me of a book that we had both read that profoundly influenced united states, non only in the manner we work with dogs only with the people in our lives. That book is What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. Past Amy Sutherland, the volume is not a canis familiaris training volume but is a reflection on how writing a volume about exotic animal trainers (Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the Earth's Premier Schoolhouse for Exotic Animal Trainers) dramatically changed the author'southward life, for the meliorate. The book eloquently presents the case for patience, knowledge, and a positive outlook.
In the books Introduction Sutherland notes:
"I'chiliad an altogether different person than I was three years ago. …My friends and family unit may non have noticed, only I am almost unrecognizable to myself at times. My outlook is more optimistic. I'm less judgmental. I have vastly more patience and self-control. I'grand a improve observer. I get along better with people, especially my married man. I have a peace of listen that comes from the globe making so much more sense to me."
Wow! To me, that is quite a life modify and all from writing a book almost animal trainers. The discussion Kate and I had about "Shamu" convinced me to reread the volume and to give information technology a proper review.
In her book, Sutherland discusses how she practical what she learned about animal grooming to people in her life, such as her husband, female parent, and friends. Below I take highlighted some of my favorite snippets from, hoping to entice you to borrow or buy a re-create and read it in its entirety.
Based on her experiences while training her dog Dixie, Sutherland became increasingly interested in animal preparation and started researching a book on creature trainers and the Moorpark College's Exotic Animal Training and Management Program. There she learned the following:
Training with force and coercion is unnecessary and counterproductive. – "Train every animal as if it'due south a killer whale" meant to work with every creature as if you could neither forcibly movement information technology nor dominate it.
We are the human with the allegedly more powerful brain, and so nosotros need to take reasonability for our canis familiaris'southward success. – "It'southward never the fauna'due south fault" is pretty much what it says: If an brute flounders in training, it's the trainer's mistake."
Both domestic dog and homo trainer must be one hundred percent engaged with ane another while training. – "When they railroad train, that is all they are doing. They aren't answering the telephone, looking for a yogurt in the fridge, or paying bills while checking to see if a dolphin correctly slapped the water with its pectoral flipper."
Sutherland likewise learned that trainers must attend to their own beliefs – "Students [Student Trainers] tin't lose their temper during a training session, ideally non even sigh, because that might undo all they accept achieved to that point…"
Almost importantly, Sutherland learned to resist the human instinct to focus on the negative and instead to focus on the beliefs nosotros desire. – "Progressive animal trainers reward the behavior they want and, equally importantly, ignore the behavior they don't."
"Progressive trainers desire goose egg less than zest, spark, joie de vivre."
"The trick is that ignoring unwanted beliefs is only half the equation. The other one-half is noticing and rewarding what you want. The ii go hand in mitt."
Every year I give each member of the Dark-green Acres Kennel Shop squad a book at Christmas fourth dimension and often share the aforementioned championship with the local veterinarians and their staff. This book was my gift selection for 2019.
If you are not a hermit living a alone and isolated existence, but instead interact with other living things, I am confident that y'all will learn something from What Shamu Taught Me Well-nigh Life, Dear, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. While not a archetype "how to train your dog" book, I have added it to my recommended reading list for anyone with a pet or who works in the pet care service manufacture. The foundation it provides for changing your behavior, as well as the beliefs of your canis familiaris, parent, friends, children, mother, or anyone, is invaluable.
Recommended Resources
Manufactures on Don's Blog
( http://www.words-woofs-meows.com )
A Recommended Reading and Listening List for Pet Care Professionals – http://bit.ly/ForPetCarePros
Recommended Resources for People with Pets – http://bit.ly/KnowledgeforPetParents
________________________________________________________________________
Don Hanson is the co-possessor of the Green Acres Kennel Shop ( greenacreskennel.com ) in Bangor, ME, where he has been helping people with their pets since 1995. He is a Bach Foundation Registered Animal Practitioner (BFRAP), Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC), Associate Certified Cat Beliefs Consultant (ACCBC), and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA). Don is a member of the Pet Professional Lodge (PPG) and is committed to PPG's Guiding Principles and the Pain-Costless, Forcefulness-Free, and Fear-Free training, direction, and care of all pets. Don produces and co-hosts a weekly radio show and podcast, The Woof Meow Bear witness, that airs on Z62 Retro Radio WZON (AM620) and WKIT 103.3-HD3 and is streamed at http://world wide web.wzonam.com/ every Sabbatum at ix AM. Podcasts of the show are bachelor at http://bit.ly/WfMwPodcasts, the Apple Podcast app, and at Don'southward weblog: www.words-woofs-meows.com. The opinions in this post are those of Don Hanson.
©29DEC20, Donald J. Hanson, All Rights Reserved
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Source: https://www.greenacreskennel.com/blog/2019/12/29/book-review-what-shamu-taught-me-about-life-love-and-marriage-lessons-for-people-from-animals-and-their-trainers-by-amy-sutherland/
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