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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

From good enough to Grand Prix

By on December 11, 2020 in Horse Training

Several years ago, I wrote a post about Grand Prix clicker training. This was a concept that we discussed at a 2014 clinic that I attended with Alexandra Kurland at Cindy Martin’s ranch in Arkansas.  “During our discussion, Alexandra offered another perspective on ‘Grand Prix’ that was not limited to top level competitions. Instead, think […]

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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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