Are you interested in animal training?

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

Ken Ramirez: Animal Trainers Need People Skills Too!

By Mary Hunter on February 15, 2010 in Conferences and Clinics, Teaching People

Ken Ramirez, the head trainer from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, spoke about the skills necessary to be a good animal training consultant at the Art and Science of Animal Training Conference. His talk, titled Wanted: Animal Trainer Consultant, those good with animals need not apply, emphasized how a good consultant or instructor MUST have […]

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Clicker Training Shoulder Targeting

By Mary Hunter on February 14, 2010 in Dog Training

I often think of targeting as a simple exercise. It’s one of the first skills I teach the horses when clicker training and it works great for teaching other behaviors. Usually, I think of targeting as a dog or horse touching their nose to something. However, there are many different ways to expand on targeting […]

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Kay Laurence: Assessing Your Animal Training Skills

By Mary Hunter on February 12, 2010 in Conferences and Clinics, Teaching People

Are you good at training animals? Are you great at shaping, but not so good at putting behavior under stimulus control? You know you’re a better trainer than your next door neighbor, but you’re nowhere near the level of the expert trainer who runs your agility class…. Good, better, worse, best, intermediate, beginner, expert. The […]

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Alexandra Kurland and Loopy Training

By Mary Hunter on February 11, 2010 in Concepts and Terms, Conferences and Clinics

At the Art and Science of Animal Training conference this year Alexandra Kurland spoke about loopy training, which is a concept she has been developing over the past year. Loopy training was the focus of a clinic I did with Alexandra Kurland last fall. The more I hear about it, the more it makes sense […]

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Dr. Robert Epstein: Engineering Complex and Novel Behavior in Animals

By Mary Hunter on February 9, 2010 in Conferences and Clinics, Research Studies

Robert Epstein was the keynote speaker for the Art and Science of Animal Training conference this year. (Be sure to read the rest of my notes from the conference as well.) Epstein, who was the last student of B.F. Skinner, researches the creativity process and how novel behavior develops. All behavior, in some sense, is […]

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2010 Art and Science of Animal Training Conference

By Mary Hunter on February 8, 2010 in Conferences and Clinics

I’m sick and it won’t stop raining, but wow! What a great weekend. I spent the weekend at the 2010 Art and Science of Animal Training Conference, which was hosted by ORCA, an animal training lab in the behavior analysis department at the University of North Texas. (I am still adding notes from the conference. […]

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