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 […]
Author Archive | Mary Hunter
Dead trees, one foot in a bucket, and other ways to be creative
Apollo and I have been looking for some new challenges. So, I’ve been trying an activity that we discuss in the “Creativity” episode of our new Listen and Learn online course. In the episode on creativity, Alexandra discusses a simple strategy for helping yourself be more creative. Put some new stuff in your arena or […]
Starting off on the right emotion
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 […]
How to think about emotions
Emotions can be a tricky subject. What is an emotion? Do animals have emotions the same way people do? Do emotions cause behavior? Is it important to pay attention to our animals’ emotions during training? We’ve had some discussion about emotions recently in the Listen and Learn online course (link). Emotions also made an appearance […]
Are you moving in the right direction?
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, […]
Poisoned cues at tax time
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 […]