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Are you interested in animal training?

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

Archer, an adoptable cat at the Denton Animal Shelter

Wordless Wednesday: Archer

By on February 1, 2012 in Fun Photos

I have several blogger friends who do wordless wednesday posts. If you’re not familiar with the concept here’s how it works. On Wednesdays, bloggers post a fun photo. Typically, the post contains no words, no description, just the title and the photo! I’m going to start doing wordless Wednesday posts. If I have any really […]

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Does your horse "have to?"

Does your horse “have to?”

By on January 31, 2012 in Horse Training

Many traditional training methods rely on force and pressure. The animal has little choice and if the animal does not perform a command, the trainer asserts her leadership and shows the animal who’s the boss. Clicker training and other positive training methods try to give the horse a voice and a choice. I want my […]

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patches, a calico shelter cat

Fun with Shelter Cats

By on January 28, 2012 in Other Species

Yesterday I spent the morning playing with some fun felines at our local animal shelter. Last semester, several of the guys I go to school with started a partnership through ORCA with our local animal shelter. They’ve been going out to the shelter several days a week, helping with training and also with everything else […]

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riding cheyenne 2

Going Backward with Cheyenne

By on January 26, 2012 in Horse Training

Cheyenne is a young paint mare at our rescue who I have recently started riding. She had about three rides last fall and a handful more during my winter break. Just recently we’ve had two short, but great, rides working on backing up with a rider. Up to now, Cheyenne and I have worked on […]

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Raccoon

Back to School (Hooray!)

By on January 25, 2012 in News and Updates

Last week was my first week back to school for the spring semester. As some of you know, I’m currently working on a master’s in behavior analysis at the University of North Texas. If you don’t know much about behavior analysis, I’d encourage you to check out the post that I wrote last year about […]

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