dog park etiquette

so this is a story that i absolutely had to share as i finished up my lunch break.

pepper and i thoroughly enjoy the dog park (as i've posted before) and with another gorgeous 70 degree day yesterday, we headed over that way after lunch.

if there are small dogs there, we stick to the small dog side and let pepper romp and play with some friends her own size. we had a couple of malteses this time and a corgi that she liked running beside. about 20 minutes after we'd been there, a little pug came in with his owner.

immediately, the pug (named buford) began paying a LOT of attention to pepper. like unwanted advances towards my poor, recently spayed pup. the other owner and i tried to get them to run around, and we encouraged pepper to fight back so hopefully the amorous little guy got the message. she nipped and jumped and gave him a good run (she's so fast!) but evidently he just was not getting the picture.

they stopped for water and he was STILL trying to jump on her while she was getting a drink. i finally picked her up and held her so she could catch her breath. the tenacious pug stood right underneath me, putting his paws up on my leg and still trying to get at her. just about when i thought he had given up and was moving on, he lifted his hind leg and "marked" my leg.

(thankfully, i was wearing gross, old jeans that promptly went in the wash when i got home.)

the owner somewhat apologized (while laughing) and said, "he didn't get you too bad, did he?" and then they remained for another 20 or 30 minutes as i held pepper for a while and then kept her to one corner where the other dogs weren't playing.

now here's the question. your dog is obviously pestering my poor girl, seems oblivious to the fact that #1) she's spayed and obviously not in heat and #2) she's just plain not interested regardless and #3) i'm having to spend the majority of my time refereeing and keeping your dog off of mine AND he just peed on me.

what exactly is the dog park etiquette in this situation? i think that at the first sign that your dog is going to be annoying and aggravating and can't keep himself off of another dog, you should take him home or over to the other side to the large dog park. especially after "the incident." if he wants to be a big dog, let him play with the big dogs.

(by the way, though this event frustrated me, i do see the humor in it and got a good laugh out of it, particularly telling it to other friends. i think i was shocked more than anything, and upset that i played the "victim" role and didn't step up to say anything.)

so, this will not necessarily going to deter us from going to the park in the future. but if you see a pug named buford...beware!