diff --git a/Stylet/Xaml/CommandAction.cs b/Stylet/Xaml/CommandAction.cs
index 4f3d5b7..bf040d6 100644
--- a/Stylet/Xaml/CommandAction.cs
+++ b/Stylet/Xaml/CommandAction.cs
@@ -72,7 +72,14 @@ namespace Stylet.Xaml
         {
             var newTarget = View.GetActionTarget(this.Subject);
             MethodInfo targetMethodInfo = null;
-            
+
+            // If it's being set to the initial value, ignore it
+            // At this point, we're executing the View's InitializeComponent method, and the ActionTarget hasn't yet been assigned
+            // If they've opted to throw if the target is null, then this will cause that exception.
+            // We'll just wait until the ActionTarget is assigned, and we're called again
+            if (newTarget == View.InitialActionTarget)
+                return;
+
             this.guardPropertyGetter = null;
             if (newTarget == null)
             {
diff --git a/Stylet/Xaml/EventAction.cs b/Stylet/Xaml/EventAction.cs
index 67e29e2..022db58 100644
--- a/Stylet/Xaml/EventAction.cs
+++ b/Stylet/Xaml/EventAction.cs
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@ namespace Stylet.Xaml
             var newTarget = View.GetActionTarget(this.subject);
             MethodInfo targetMethodInfo = null;
 
+            // If it's being set to the initial value, ignore it
+            // At this point, we're executing the View's InitializeComponent method, and the ActionTarget hasn't yet been assigned
+            // If they've opted to throw if the target is null, then this will cause that exception.
+            // We'll just wait until the ActionTarget is assigned, and we're called again
+            if (newTarget == View.InitialActionTarget)
+                return;
+
             if (newTarget == null)
             {
                 if (this.targetNullBehaviour == ActionUnavailableBehaviour.Throw)
diff --git a/Stylet/Xaml/View.cs b/Stylet/Xaml/View.cs
index e3f9a62..96b82e4 100644
--- a/Stylet/Xaml/View.cs
+++ b/Stylet/Xaml/View.cs
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@ namespace Stylet.Xaml
     /// </summary>
     public class View : DependencyObject
     {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Initial value of the ActionTarget property.
+        /// This can be used as a marker - if the property has this value, it hasn't yet been assigned to anything else.
+        /// </summary>
+        public static readonly object InitialActionTarget = new object();
+
         private static readonly ContentPropertyAttribute defaultContentProperty = new ContentPropertyAttribute("Content");
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -41,7 +47,7 @@ namespace Stylet.Xaml
         /// The object's ActionTarget. This is used to determine what object to call Actions on by the ActionExtension markup extension.
         /// </summary>
         public static readonly DependencyProperty ActionTargetProperty =
-            DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("ActionTarget", typeof(object), typeof(View), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(null, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.Inherits));
+            DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("ActionTarget", typeof(object), typeof(View), new FrameworkPropertyMetadata(InitialActionTarget, FrameworkPropertyMetadataOptions.Inherits));
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Fetch the ViewModel currently associated with a given object