Functional MR imaging in the alert, behaving monkey is increasingly used to provide both electrophysiological and MR data in the context of neuroscience research. So far, several labs reported fMRI data from the awake monkey, but none of them studied and optimized systematically the effects of monkey’s motion to fMRI time series. Here, were report a significant refinement of acquisition and correction strategies to minimize magnetic susceptibility artifacts induced by respiration, mouth, and body movement. Real-time feedback of sensor signals correlated with MR navigator data was combined with targeted animal training and fMRI correction strategies.