How hard should it be to teach a dog to fetch? Right now, Ginger thinks dog toys are for chewing, tugging or chasing. We’ve never bothered to teach her to bring them back. Of course, Ginger is perfectly capable of fetching, the issue is communicating to her that this is what I want her to [...]
Ginger’s Snow Day (pictures and video)
Actually, all of last week was kind of Ginger’s snow day. We’ve been having some NASTY weather in Texas, and poor Texas is not prepared for multiple days below freezing with snow and ice on the ground. In any case, the university was closed Tuesday through Friday last week, so I got a few extra [...]
Ginger Takes a Bow
Using clicker training, Ginger dog has recently learned how to bow! I’ve included a short video clip at the bottom so you can watch her practicing her bow. With clicker training, many dog trainers advise to get the behavior occurring at a high rate BEFORE trying to add a cue to it. This actually makes [...]
Clicker Training Doggie Zen (videos)
Ginger and I have been working on Doggie Zen, which is an exercise from Sue Ailsby’s training levels. Doggie Zen is a leave it type exercise. At the early stages, you teach the dog to ignore and leave alone a piece of food in your open hand. Later on, this evolves into more complicated exercises, [...]
I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas…
Dallas got quite a bit of snow yesterday! (Well, our house got over an inch, which is a lot for Dallas.) The snow stuck around until today and Ginger has really enjoyed playing it in. Check out the photos below! click here for a larger version Below are each of the individual images that make [...]
Check Your Verbal Cues
This is part of a series of several posts on cues. I wrote last week a bit about what a cue is and common stimuli that can be used as cues. Often, we try and teach our pets verbal cues. But how well does your dog (or cat, parrot or pony) recognize your verbal cue [...]
What’s the best way to train an animal?
Stale Cheerios will help you learn new knowledge and techniques to take your training skills to the next level. So stick around, your animals will be grateful!
I'm a graduate student studying the science of behavior and training. On this blog I share stories of my animal training adventures, as well as tips, techniques and tricks to help you improve your training. Although most of this blog centers around training rescue horses, the ideas discussed apply equally to all species. The other animals I work with, including dogs and rats, also appear occasionally on the blog.
Mary Hunter
cheeriotrainer@gmail.com
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