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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

Going Gaited is Going Positive

By on December 1, 2009 in Horse Training

Going Gaited is a new online magazine for gaited horses. What’s neat about Going Gaited is that they support positive training and clicker training! Cheryl Ward will be writing a monthly column for the magazine on positive training and what she calls training with attraction. Here’s a quote from this month’s column: Although I do […]

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How long does it take to train a horse?

By on November 30, 2009 in Horse Training

Question: How long does it take to train a horse? Answer: As long as it takes. This is a follow up post to my previous post, In a Whisper or In a Shout? Training under Time Restraints, which discussed training unhandled colts in 2 1/2 hours. Do you remember the story of the tortoise and […]

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December Clicker Carnival is Coming Soon!

By on November 28, 2009 in Carnival

Do you blog about positive animal training? Submit your favorite blog post from November to the December edition of the Clicker Carnival, the only blog carnival specifically for positive animal trainers. All submissions related to positive training are welcome, from personal training stories, to how-to articles and videos, to product and book reviews. Read more […]

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shimmer

Shimmer Practices Trailer Loading (video)

By on November 19, 2009 in Horse Training

This is Shimmer’s second day practicing walking into the trailer. Trailer loading can be very frightening to a horse and many people have lots of trouble and training problems trying to get their horse to load into a trailer. With clicker training, trailer loading is a piece of cake! To read more about teaching Shimmer […]

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Shimmer Learns to Trailer Load

By on November 18, 2009 in Horse Training

A trailer is a small, dark, metal box on wheels. For a prey animal like a horse, walking into the mouth of this monster sounds like a pretty scary idea! Shimmer, our little buckskin filly has found a foster home. So, it was high time for her to learn to walk into a trailer! She […]

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