Ahhhhhhhhhh, retractable leashes… a hot topic that inspired me to write down some brief thoughts…As most people who know me know, I HATE flexi-leashes. This might be the one dog training tool that I absolutely cannot find ANY value in; (even silly ones usually at least have some kind of foundation in a reasonably good idea… for the most part); NOT this one (if you ask me…).
|
Everything you can do with a retractable leash can be done on a long, fixed line (albeit maybe not as conveniently). The benefits of convenience, in my opinion, are far outweighed by the potential negative consequences of using of one these bad leashes. Exhibit A… (Fear tactic? Possibly.)The injury in the photo to the right is a pretty typical example of what retractable leashes (cords, maybe more accurate?) can and do cause on a regular basis. (I will accede to the fact that the argument could be made that the leash didn’t cause the injury; the poor – or complete lack of – training of the dog at the end of it did). However, when was the last time you saw a well-trained dog walking down the street attached to one of these? I’m going to venture a guess here & say never. Been wrong before, but…
|
Exhibit A: |
The reasons I can’t stand these things are as follows:1) Simple mechanical malfunctions. I worked at a major corporate-owned PETSTORE for 4 years and I can tell you from experience that these things malfunction. Often, the mechanism inside breaks (never EVER at a convenient time… speaking of convenience) resulting in the line being continuously let out when you don’t want it to be OR jammed. When and if the line jams and the contraption is ripped out of your hand, guess what happens? Your dog was already taking off after something (or it wouldn’t have been yanked out of your hand) and now he has a plastic monster chasing after him. It is scary to dogs when this happens, and many a canine has ended up on a “Missing” poster over it.
|
2) Manners. I can’t tell you how many times on how many different occasions (at how many different events, to the disillusion of how many people) I have seen someone’s dog 16 feet away from its owner wrapped around a display in a store, peeing on a table at an event, tying up another dog, “THIS CLOSE” to becoming dinner for another dog, in a completely different aisle or on a completely different STREET than the person holding the other end of the leash, jumping up, scratching, lifting their legs, wrapping up an exhibit, pulling down shelving… You see where I’m going with this. “Manners” is also a nice way of saying this is yet another reason I can’t stand these things. Safety may be more accurate, which brings me to:
|
Exhibit B: |
Reason #3) They are dangerous. Notice the pictures that I have included thus far depict injuries to HUMANS. Never mind the injuries to unfortunate dogs, including the BYSTANDERS. I will again accede to the fact that it is probably POSSIBLE to use these things appropriately(?), responsibly, but I am gritting my teach while even typing out that sentence because I have such a bad taste in my mouth for these due to what I have consistently seen over the years. I cannot recall ever once seeing somebody use one of these things responsibly… and I have seen a LOT of dog/human interactions (ya think? ;).Retractable (extendable… flexi… choose your word) leashes frequently cause injuries up to & including those in Exhibit B, adapted from Flexi’s own website. (See picture on left.)
I can already hear somebody arguing with me in favor of “Flexi” leashes by saying something like, “Well, I could say pit bulls frequently cause injuries up to and including the propaganda photos to my right” which is bullsh*t for many reasons and I will debunk that potential argument in another article. 4) … and one of the more important reasons in my profession: retractable leashes send mixed (poor) communication signals to the dog. There is ALWAYS tension on a retractable leash… ALWAYS. The dog is aware of this, and this can have a SLEW of negative consequences, too innumerable to include all of them in this article, but teaching your dog to walk with tension on the leash being the least of it. |
And Reason #5: The total lack of control any given owner has on one of these things leads to injuries to other dogs with unusual frequency. Even more so when there are multiple dogs on retractables.All three dogs were on leashes, but both of the attacking dogs were (1) larger (2) on extendable leashes that were fully extended, leaving their owner with little control over them; (3) too large and strong for their owner to control both of them at the same time to begin with, [reliably on extendable leashes].
The other dogs’ owner should know better. My friend had taken their dog outside for a poo, and suddenly around the corner came the neighbor dogs at the ends of their leashes, their owner obviously not paying a great deal of attention to what her dogs might encounter out of her sight, running ahead of her as they were. Even though she knew her dogs had attacked her dog just a few months’ previous, to the tune of over $300 in veterinary care. This time was worse (& the vet’s bill reflects it).” |
Exhibit C: |
Okay so I was only on the second part where it was talking about manners. I had to comment before I forget! Walking spartan and Khronus down at Zwicks park and this lady was doing something on the bank of the water.. Collecting rocks or something an older ish lady maybe 50 years. She had adult huskey on a retractable…… 😐 nuff said. A huskey is a pulling dog trained to pull sleds!! Are you crazy lady?! So we proceed to walk by her Carlos on the outside then Khronus on his right then me beside Khronus and I have spartan on my right and the break wall is on his right so keeping what we know is the least friendly dog on the very most inside farthest away from us huskey. So we are walking at a brisk pace as she is climbing up the rocks to the paved trail her huskey is already at the top of the rocks on the trail waiting for her because he’s on a retractable so this lady is approx. 10 feet from her dog. Still keeping spartan on the inside we go to walk passed this dog and what does she do? She gives him more slack so he comes running up to our dogs and as this happens she has the nerve to say ” oh it’s okay he can say hi, he’s friendly” as I furiously shout “NO IT’S NOT! OURS AREN’T!!!” trying to pull our dogs back. People are so ignorant talk about no manners. Question would we be held responsible in a situation like that if one of our dogs was to bite? Spartan is very protective, when we are walking both dogs are on those Handel leashes. Really short like 2 12 feet or something so they are always under control. Opinions please?
Well in my opinion the older lady would be at fault if something should have happened! You and Carlos were doing what was proper, keeping your dogs under control, beside you, and trying to avoid a potential bad encounter. This is one of the thousand issues I have with these damn retractable leashes, They serve no good purpose to anyone or any dog! If I could make a few wishes to a fairy god mother it would be, Ban all retractables, Ban all choke chains, ( less than 1% of the population use them correctly) and lastly Ban all pinch collars, again ( less than 1% of the population use them correctly) All I can really say is continue to keep you and your dogs as safe as possible, avoid bad situations when you can and brace yourself when shit goes down! If you see someone on a walk with a retractable leash try to avoid it, or better yet pass on my card and tell them to come and have a good read!! LOL
Interesting, I don’t use one and I guess I won’t now!
Good plan!!