1) The puppy is small and cute and he gets excited when he sees the vacuum whirling across the floor, his prey drive engages and he goes after it barking with a little woof, woof.
2) The people just think it's the cutest thing ever. They laugh and encourage him all over the house. Sometimes they even record it on video.
This could be any number of behaviors like licking the faces of the children or humping other dogs in the house or even the humans, jumping on the furniture uninvited, sneaking drinks from your cup of water (or even your $5 Margarita as one friend recounted) or any other obnoxious behavior. It is quite possibly the most common scenario in the problem dog behavior realm.
The key to avoiding this type of on wanted behavior is to never encourage your puppy to do anything that you wouldn't want him to do when he is full grown and the in-laws are over. This includes nibbling on your hands (I used to love that feeling) or just about any annoying or dangerous thing you can think of. The first time I learned this principle was not with a dog but with my oldest daughter who has Down's syndrome. We used to think it was cute when she would point her finger at us and scold us as if we were bad little children. Her cute little face was so charming and she was so good at mocking us that she just stole our hearts away. We got her to do it for our friends, we recorded it on film and just had a jolly good time with it. Well, a few years later when we had been trying to extinguish that behavior for months we started telling our friends who had infants and toddlers not to let them do anything that they didn't want them doing when they were thirty! Our daughter finally began to extinguish this behavior when she was in her twenties! We certainly wouldn't have put her or ourselves through that had we known better at the time. Now, of course she is not a dog and she was not even your average child but the principle is the same, we need to always be thinking about the bigger picture. Don't laugh! I mean really, DON'T LAUGH!
I used to love the feeling of a puppy chewing on my fingers until I realized that this could cause serious problems later on. A puppy jumping on you is not a big deal when they are just a few pounds and you are wearing your old jeans. A 40lb dog with muddy paws and sharp claws is a different story. As the old saying goes "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It's usually just a matter of not reinforcing these little behaviors. Often there is no need to even discipline your pup but just to give him no attention at all when he tries to do these behaviors and to give him lots of attention when he refrains from doing them.
It's not worth it for what the dog or the humans will go through and it can even cause the dog to become dangerous and he could have to be put down through no fault of his own. I once tried to help a family who had four teenage children. Three of them were boys. Their Australian Shepherd Dog was very pleasant when she first came to live with them as an 8 week old puppy. The boys loved to wrestle with her and they got a kick out of it when she would mouth their arms and grab at their clothing. I tried to warn them against it but to no avail. It wasn't long before the dog had bitten the father, a friend and a neighbor as well as the neighbor's dog through the fence. Be a responsible owner, have fun with your dog but don't laugh at the bad behaviors. It might just save your dog's life! It most certainly will make both your lives more pleasant if you avoid this common mistake.
If you have made this mistake with your pooch, the good news is that his reaction to the proverbial vacuum cleaner can be reconditioned. It will take some work on your part but it can be done. Be sure you enlist the help of a professional dog trainer to help you with this. Good luck and happy training!
by Mary Kowalczyk
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