I was asked to leave the dog park

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Meet Guinness, my seven year old Portuguese Water Dog.

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Since I got my first dog Bailey, about six years ago, I took her to socialize and play with other pooches at dog parks from the time she was a puppy. When I got Guinness four years ago, he joined us on our dog park adventures. At the dog park, Bailey greets other dogs and occasionally joins in a chase, but would rather have a human scratch her butt. Guinness is far more social; he’s bouncy, playful, gentle, eager to make friends, and never fights.

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Thing is, Guinness is a rescue dog; I got him when he was three years old. He has a minor case of the humpies, apparently because his previous owners neutered him a bit late in his life. If we go to a dog park, Guinness might find one dog that he wants to be extra-special friends with, and will try to mount them shortly after they meet and start to play. He’ll give up after a bit, maybe make another attempt at humpies later, but play normally during the rest of his visit. Dog parks are usually patronized by dog people, and they know that dogs sometimes mount each other to establish a pecking order. Guinness isn’t the only dog out there trying to hump another dog.

Yesterday night after work, I went to the dog park that opened last year not too far from my house. The usual crowd wasn’t there, though; it seemed like different folks with different dogs. No worries; I took Guinness and Bailey through the “airlock,” and away they went. Bailey went to the humans for butt scratches; Guinness took a healthy poop and then went off to join the other dogs in a game of chase.

All went well for about 20 minutes, until someone arrived with a shy Golden Retriever. After the Golden went through the airlock, he responded to the mass greeting by curling up into a little ball.

Guinness humped him immediately.

I pulled Guinness off, but he just kept heading back to that Golden. He’s play for a few minutes, but the lure of that blonde fur and submissive stance would draw Guinness in like a Lab to a soggy old tennis ball.

The normal crowd that was at the dog park, the people who knew Guinness, weren’t there. These were people who never saw him before. Their reaction was … well, quite hostile.

“There’s something seriously wrong with that dog!”
“That dog shouldn’t be here playing with other dogs!”
“You got to get that gay dog out of here!”
“You should just get out of here! Just leave! Go!”

Huh? The people at the park reacted as if I was bringing in an aggressive pit bull from the 'hood. I’ve never received any criticism or complaints at a dog park before this. This past last week and a half has been a festival of rejection for me, for everything from women to work, and now I’ve been rejected from the dog park. Guess it was only a matter of time.

2

I doth protest! That dog is misnamed! Guinness is a dark body with a creamy beige head. That dog, cute as it is, a white body with a dark head. It is the anti-Guinness!!

3

Hm. That is odd. Dogs do what dogs do. Sometimes, they do some weird things, but then again, so do people. Do they expect the dogs to act like little robots or something?

If my dog were getting humped, I’d let the dog sort it out (worst case scenario), or I’d pull my dog away and tell the person who was with the humper about it. If they didn’t do anything, then I’d just move to another spot of the park.

4

You should have told those folks, “Well why don’t you go give that dog a taste of his own medicine?”

5

Your dog seems normal to me.
Sometimes two dogs are just not compatible, as is the case here. IMHO, a “shy” dog like that one will inevitably be “abused” in one way or another by another dog. It didn’t fight back like dogs are supposed to do. Weak dogs are as much a problem as agressive dogs at dog parks. You should still try and reduce the humping inclination in Guiness*
Go back to the dog park!

*: I love your dogs’ names. My dogs are Bailey and Kirin.

6

Well, it’s better than calling him Holstein.

7

But if you did call him Holstein, you could say that “only three people understood him, and of these, one was dead, the second had gone insane, and the third had forgotten it” :smiley:

8

Sometimes (I know this is blasphemy) the people at the dogpark are just idiots.

We’ve stopped going to our local because it seems to be just a big yard surrogate for people. They sit and completely ignore their dogs whatever the behaviors (pooping, aggression).

I’ve always laughed at the people who get offended by the humping. My dog does it as a solicitation of play/chase, kind of like a playful bump or shove, it solicits a reaction. And it’s part of a puppy play set of behaviors.

You know he’s not doing anything wrong; it’s a normal dog thing and he likes doing it and as you said, it’s not his only dogpark goal. I can’t say, not having been there, but who knows, if G had been allowed to continue and the people hadn’t been stressing out the retriever might have realised, “Hey, he’s just humping. Puppy play!” and got up and had a good time playing with him.

It’s a dog communication version of teasing sometimes. I kind of think it’s one of the wonderful things about dogs: humping behavior displayed at a playground by a toddler would be incredibly disturbing, but dogs will be dogs and it’s no big deal when they do it.

I mean, as long as they’re not suicidal about it. Our boy Tahoe, a legendary dim bulb, once ran up to two gigantic dogs that were trying to rip each other’s faces off and humped the biggest one (well, he tried, he did a little hopping humping thing because he wasn’t tall enough to really mount up and get a grip) and that broke up the fight–the humpee spun around and chased him about twenty feet before he realised he wasn’t going to catch him (Tahoe’s a whippet).
Anyway, back to the OP, sounds like they’re just a bunch of dorks and while being asked to leave the dogpark is embarrassing, thankfully they’re not the regular crowd. It’ll be a funny story, you can print up a t-shirt for him “I was asked to leave the dogpark 'cuz I’m a humper” or “I love shy blondes.”

9

I got nothin to add except that the next time I call in sick to work I’m using this as an excuse.

10

Heh, if humping is an indication of sexual orientation, then my Zoe must be bisexual and transgendered.

11

I once saw a reprint of a newspaper ad in the Reader’s Digest humor section.

FREE PUPPIES! Mother a St. Bernard, father a very determined Cocker Spaniel.

12

My dear departed springer spaniel was neutered as a youngster and didn’t have any humpy problems at all.

Until I had this party, and a bunch of people came over, including this one guy who was one of those shy folks that prefers to remain inconspicuously in the background.

The dog fell in love. He chased this poor man around all night, humping his leg at every possible opportunity. I guess the dog thought he was playing hard-to-get.

It was hilarious. Poor guy.

13

Sirius is the first male dog I’ve ever had. I got him fixed as soon as he came to live with us at about five months old. He hadn’t reached sexual maturity yet, so I was confident I wouldn’t have any humping problems.

Nope-- he started humping Polaris right away. Hubby was grossly offended. “Stop trying to fuck your sister!” he’d bellow.

Not as bad as what a friend of mine goes through, I suppose. She has only one dog, a young male Dachshound. She says he humps a stuffed cat she bought him to play with, so frequently that everyone in the house has started calling it his “girlfriend.” She says that on occasion, he’ll start humping someone’s leg and she’ll say, “No! Go get your girlfriend,” and by golly, he will!