Rooney is herding? Being dominant? Has a shoe fetish?

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Rooney has developed an interesting behavior with guests in our home and even occasionally our 8 year old daughter. He seems to be trying to control their movement (or prevent their movement?) by gently nipping at their shoes. He is not biting and does not hurt anyone, but as people try to walk down the hallway he will dart around their feet, mouthing at their shoe laces and generally making a nuisance of himself. But it seems to be coming from a place of excitement and perhaps wanting to "herd" them where he wants.

He is not at all aggressive or anxious when he's doing this. He enjoys people and likes having guests and if anything I think it's more a case of not knowing what to do with himself. We are very fortunate that Rooney is not a jumper which would of course be so much worse but this is still unacceptable behavior that I'm not entirely sure how to curb?

If I'm prepared for the guest, I can have him on leash so he doesn't have so much freedom to herd the guest, but it is harder when guests arrive unexpectedly.

What I would love to do is work on training Rooney to go into a down-stay when guests arrive until he is given permission to get up, but that has been hard to do when we still have our very old dog around who cannot be bothered to learn new tricks at this point. I just don't know how much success I will have making Rooney stay put when Reagan is greeting guests as he pleases.

Any thoughts on the shoe thing? Herding? Dominance? A little of both?

[Deb, Connor & Simon]

Forget dominance. How old is Rooney? To me this sounds like a puppy game for him.

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

He is only a year and a half so that could definitely be it. And he's not a dominant dog in general so I'd be surprised if that was it. Maybe he is just being playful.

[Bonnie and Kona]

Owen did this for a little while... maybe a couple of weeks at that age. I didn't permit it and I haven't noticed him do it in a long time. He is 2 1/2 now and turning into such a good dog! You and Rooney will figure this one out too.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I would train just like you ordinarily would for any other unwanted behavior. Whatever method works for you. I'd probably have the person stop, tell him no and re-direct him to do something else, sit, lay down, whatever and reward good behavior if that's what you've done in the past. He is still a puppy, but if he were a jumper you'd stop that too. As far as the older dog, he's not herding so no reason to train him, and I feel each dog can be trained individually. Murphy is a barker, Bella is not. Murphy is disciplined and put into a sit stay while Bella wanders around wondered what the heck he was barking at.....

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Thanks for the encouragement to move forward with training Rooney individually. I guess I've just been chicken or lazy to give it a try. Clicker training has been effective with Rooney but the challenge I have with Reagan is that as soon as he knows treats are involved he will bulldoze his way into the training session. :) But I guess that just means he can work on a little training too! 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Sometimes why is a hard thing to figure out and really doesn't matter much.. Preventing, controlling the behavior is what's important. So training Rooney not to do this is what counts.

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Yes, good point. I keep asking him to explain it to me but so far he just looks at me with those innocent eyes. :)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Exactly, you can definitely train him even if Rooney is doing something different.  That said, I really don't think any dog is ever too old to learn something new.  Rescue dogs of all ages are trained every day.  I also agree that the cause doesn't really matter...it's the behavior that needs to change by teaching him what you WANT him to do instead...like a down/stay.

[Adina P]

Agree, there is no need to worry about your older dog not being trained.

[Christine & Camus]

I would stop him from doing it no matter the reason.  Camus started the same type of behavior and I let him know it was not acceptable.  Some people thought it was cute and playful, others were annoyed.  I was one of the annoyed, particularly when it began to escalate.

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Agreed. It used to only occur with my son's girlfriend (who I think Rooney has a crush on) and now it's spreading to other guests in the house. Definitely not okay. I need to get a plan in place...Just not sure what the plan is yet. How exactly did you "let him know it was not acceptable?" Just wondering what worked for you?

[Christine & Camus]

I would call him and put him in a sit-stay.  If he did not respond to me after one call I went and got him and then the sit-stay.  It took time and consistency on my part, but he eventually learned it was a no go and stopped.