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Mary Hunter and her horse Apollo


On this site I share stories of my animal training adventures, information about the science of animal training and behavior, and tips and advice to help you improve your training.

Join me as we explore the best training strategies for creating fast learning, effective communication, and enthusiastic, willing animals.

If you’re new to Stale Cheerios, I recommend that you start by visiting this page to learn more about Stale Cheerios and that you visit my Top Posts page.

~Mary Hunter

Recent posts from the StaleCheerios blog

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Mats of many colors

By on December 4, 2020 in Training Stories and Tips

Recently, Apollo and I have been practicing standing on mats. This is a seemingly simple training exercise that has many practical uses.  A mat can give a horse a concrete place to stay during other activities, such as grooming, saddling, or veterinary procedures. Mats can also be used to direct a horse to go to […]

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Horse clicker training clinic - The barn

Starting off on the right emotion

By on May 20, 2020 in Horse Training

Social distancing means that all of the conferences and other events I had planned for this spring and summer have been cancelled. However, the conversations are still continuing virtually! If you’d like to listen in on some of these conversations, you can listen to the Drinking from the Toilet episode about shaping that I did […]

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Logan wearing his service dog vest

Are you moving in the right direction?

By on April 30, 2020 in Dog Training

Have you heard the big news? Alexandra Kurland, Dominique Day and I have just released our first audio course about behavior analysis and animal training. You can find out more here. As part of our course launch, I am part of the conversation on this week’s episode of the Equiosity podcast. In the podcast episode, […]

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Poisoned cues at tax time

By on April 24, 2020 in Teaching People

As some of you know, I serve as the president for the Art and Science of Animal Training. In addition to organizing the annual ASAT conference, I take care of all of the behind-the-scenes administrative duties, including managing the website, answering emails, and paying the bills.   Even though nonprofits don’t pay taxes, they still […]

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