diff --git a/metrics/dogstatsd/dogstatsd.go b/metrics/dogstatsd/dogstatsd.go
index ba784b7..ccdcd57 100644
--- a/metrics/dogstatsd/dogstatsd.go
+++ b/metrics/dogstatsd/dogstatsd.go
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@
 }
 
 func (d *Dogstatsd) tagValues(labelValues []string) string {
-	if len(labelValues) == 0 {
+	if len(labelValues) == 0 && len(d.lvs) == 0 {
 		return ""
 	}
 	if len(labelValues)%2 != 0 {