St. Petersburg, Florida - Golden Retrievers are very social dogs that get along well with people, other animals, and especially other members of their breed. Except this one, apparently!

Grace Howe couldn't believe her eyes when she saw her beloved Golden Retriever, Reef, trying to befriend a fellow Golden in the dog park.

The open-hearted Reef kept trying to play and make contact with the other pup, but his fellow didn't give him a second glance and kept looking over the four-legged friend.

"He didn't look at Reef the whole time," Howe said in an interview with Newsweek.

Instead, the other pup was interested in another dog in the park.

"For about 20 minutes, the other Golden consistently chose to engage with the third dog, even when Reef tried to initiate play," the owner explained sadly.

One of these moments can be seen in a video Howe posted on Instagram recently. In the clip, she holds her hand over her mouth in horror while Reef is once again ignored.

"Reef is trying so hard to play with another golden retriever and it won't even acknowledge him," reads the onscreen text. "I'm sitting here trying not to cry."

She adds in the caption that "tears were shed."

Reef's owner said that she had decided to leave the park and later posted the clip, which was very well-received.

However, some users also jump to the other dog's defense, speculating that he was only trying to slow down the overexcited Reef.

This assessment could fit with the part of the story that took place after the recording.

"I decided to leave the park shortly after," Howe told Newsweek.

"As we were walking toward the exit, the other Golden then decided he wanted to play with Reef as we were leaving and ran up to him!"

In the end, there was a happy ending. The other dog was probably social after all – maybe he was just playing hard to get!