WHAT SHAMU THE WHALE TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE, LOVE AND MARRIAGE

While researching training techniques for one of her books, journalist Amy Sutherland had an insight: why not use them with humans—specifically, her husband? The principle is simple. Trainers reward desired behavior and ignore unwanted behavior. By applying other training principles, she found herself becoming more optimistic and less critical. What began as a strange experiment, to say the least, yielded such positive results that the author applied the techniques to relationships with a variety of people, from her mother and friends to her postal worker.