Hi all, first question for the forum I've been lurking and there is so much information here!

I have an 8-mo old boy, Tiki. We started taking him to the dog park about 2 months ago, and he's done really well. For the most part he plays great, isn't scared at all but is also not aggressive or rough. I always watch for the good play body language I learned in his puppy classes, and he does it all.

BUT he has a tough time giving up when a dog doesn't want to play with him. On many occasions (but not every time), he'll fixate on one dog and won't leave it alone. He seems to take refusal to play as a challenge. The more a dog says "no" the more he tries to incite play. He's never aggressive about it, but he will often circle and hassle a dog to the point that they're running from him or running to their people. It's almost always small dogs - are they irresistible toys?

Additionally, many times when he fixates on a dog, he starts by trying to play, then moves onto trying to hump. He will try to play, try to hump, repeat repeat. He was recently neutered (just went back to the dog park yesterday now that he's recuperated) and I'm hoping that would help, but it's too soon to tell.

Overall we love the dog park, but this has caused me to take him home early several times so we don't wear out our welcome. Any advice?

My husky does exactly the same thing, and she is so fast its hard to get her to not get away from me before I can catch her if she doesn't want to be caught. Those two things combined make me look like a terrible dog owner and it has actually kept me from going to the dog park as often.

Hey neighbor! There are so many parks around here, a lot have small dog sections (I know not all small dogs use it) but if the park you're going to doesn't you might try somewhere else? Korra will do this too, not too often. I just grab her collar and start running the other direction, let go, and she's in running mode at that point and will just run on. Then we go to another part of the park. Not sure about the humping, hope it gets better. Come out to the park with our Seattle group some time!