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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

chardonnay with the noodles

Chardonnay Meets The Noodles

By on July 5, 2011 in Horse Training

We’ve started playing with several of our horses with the noodle fingers obstacle on our new horse obstacle course. The noodle fingers obstacle is definitely pretty scary! The best way to introduce a horse to something scary is gradually, using a shaping process. So, start with something the horse can do, then gradually increase your […]

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Treating Resource Guarding with CAT (video)

By on June 30, 2011 in Dog Training

Resource guarding can be a serious problem for some dogs. (Resource guarding is when a dog displays aggressive behavior when another dog or a person tries to take something away from the dog, such as a toy or bone.) This spring, several of my friends at UNT used Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) to successfully treat […]

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Training with Urchins and Sea Stars!

By on June 10, 2011 in Other Species

What animals can’t be trained?? I had a lot of surprised friends several years ago when I did some clicker training and trick training with my goldfish Blaze. Many species are much more capable of learning than we give them credit for. A woman named Barbara Ray recently posted on one of the discussion groups […]

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Petting Beau

More Progress With Beau

By on May 26, 2011 in Horse Training

Our big black and white gelding, Beau, is continuing to make amazing progress. He will often come up to the fence seeking out attention and has come trotting up to me several times when I have been in his pasture. I wrote a little bit about Beau earlier in this post. He was probably badly […]

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