What is Motion Memory in Dog Training

Motion memory refers to those things that your body has become habituated to movement and/or action to the point it can override how you are trying to change movement and/or action. As an example, often I click my mouse twice over things on my computer even as I realize I don't need to do that anymore. In fact, it usually makes a whole bunch of useless windows open up that I don't need, and slows downs processes on my computer. My habit of motion is overriding what I already know that I need to do.  Where do these things show up in dog training?


· When a handler wraps the leash around their hands or puts their whole hand through the handle loop. The correct way to hold the leash, which takes awhile and practice to set into the conscience of the handler, is to put your thumb through the loop of the leash, and then wrap your fingers around the whole handle.

· During the training of the heel, when the leash hand floats into the air. I don’t know why this happens, and it never helps the exercise. What this does is put the leash out of place so that pulling your dog around becomes necessary, instead of having a slack leash on your dog all the time. The right hand holding the leash during the heel needs to be straight down so that the leash hangs loosely under the knee and any correction is given a well-timed and natural way.

· The instincts to gather up the line during the longe line exercise, and this is totally counter-productive to the exercise. You need all 15 to 20 feet of the longe line out, as your hand is correctly holding the leash at your mid section.

The instinctively grabbing at or gravitate towards your dog when they do not come. This is very related to the coddling instinct (coddling is usually an inadvertent reinforcement of an fearful or unwanted behavior, in other words the unwanted behavior increases the more it is done), and the dog is not given enough independence to know and learn what they need to do.

There are very amusing things that trainers sometimes do to correct motion memory. There is the belt to strap the handler’s hand down to their side. A water bottle in a hand also helps correct the problem. Most of all what helps is doing the homework, rereading the directions, and working on these to the best of your ability. Sometimes the dog does not need to be used in favor of correcting the motion memory problems before including the dog in the exercises.

What things can you think of in your motion memory?

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