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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

Equine Artists

By on March 27, 2009 in Horse Training

I love positive training methods and clicker training because it opens up a whole range of new behaviors we can teach our animals that could never be possible with traditional methods. I’ve recently found a new blog that I love. Cheryl, the woman who owns the website, has taught all four of her horses to […]

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Dog Training Update

By on March 27, 2009 in Dog Training

Here’s a video of Ginger and I playing from about a week ago. It shows a handful of the things we’ve been working on recently. We’ve been working quite a bit on targeting type behaviors, including touching my palm and touching the end of a targeting stick. (More information about target training.) She really understand […]

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ORCA: Part 7. Kay Laurence

By on March 26, 2009 in Conferences and Clinics

These are my notes from the ORCA Great Minds conference at UNT in March 2009. The Great Minds conference brought half a dozen top trainers together to talk about animal training, clicker training, operant conditioning and the future of training. This is the seventh post of my thoughts and notes and the second post about […]

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ORCA: Part 6. Kay Laurence

By on March 26, 2009 in Conferences and Clinics

These are my notes from the ORCA Great Minds conference at UNT in March 2009. The Great Minds conference brought half a dozen top trainers together to talk about animal training, clicker training, operant conditioning and the future of training. This is the sixth post of my thoughts and notes and the first post about […]

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What makes a good reinforcer?

By on March 25, 2009 in Dog Training

Here’s how I’m putting theory from the classroom into my training sessions! Several weeks ago in my intro behavior analysis class we talked about good reinforcers using an acronym called DISC. This is what DISC stands for: D–deprivation I–immediacy S–size C–contengency The best reinforcers are something the animal hasn’t had in awhile (principle of deprivation), […]

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