One of the most exciting things about bringing home our new dog or puppy is that wonderful feeling of shopping for collars, beds, leads and toys. Looking through the shelves of colours and styles. There is so much to choose from and many people will pick up a flexi-lead as their lead of choice. But is it really the best choice for you and your dog?
Surely, they must be great or why else would there be such a wide range and choice in our pet shops? Why buy a long line and a shorter lead when you can have both in one? Surely, they are much safer for our puppies and young dogs than risking them being off lead and running away or getting into trouble with other dogs or people?
Well… no…and here is why.
The Handle: Whilst this looks comfortable and makes a bold statement of control and strength, dog walkers may not have the control the manufacturers claim these leads arm the user with. It isn’t the case that you can press a button and reel in the lead, along with your dog. If a dog decides to really pick up the pace, the biggest danger is that the lead will reach the end at speed and with enough force that the large plastic handle will be yanked out of your hand and will then proceed to bounce around in pursuit of a now startled running dog, causing them to panic and to bolt.
The Lead: The line itself is made of a very strong thin nylon cord or tape. It has to be very strong to cope with the pressures put on it by a strong pulling dog. It has to be thin to fit into the handle. But these two attributes make it hugely dangerous if wrapped around limbs of either humans or dogs causing cuts, grazes, burns and even amputations.
She had just finished walking one of her dogs when it became distracted by another dog and ran off excitedly on the lead.
The lead ended up wrapped tightly around Jillian’s middle fingers on her right hand, causing severe damage, including the “degloving” of her finger – when the skin and some of the soft tissue are ripped off.
She said the retractable lead she used acted like a “filleting knife”, causing “terrible pain”.
She also suffered severe cuts and dislocated her index finger, after the incident several months ago.
Jillian needed surgery to remove the top part of her middle finger and a skin graft. She has been left with a shorter middle finger, as a result.
“I still can’t form a proper fist yet and I’m continuing to do exercises to strengthen my hand,” she says.
Flexi leads are designed so our dogs can wander at leisure in front or behind us but this too poses a risk to other people using the area we are walking in. Very often we will be looking at our phone or meandering not really paying attention to where our dog is. The very nature of the tape being so thin, means that others may not notice it and I have known people to trip or jog into a lead stretched from owner to dog causing injuries and arguments.
The Locking Feature: Flexi leads have a button that locks the lead at the length we are happy with depending on where we are walking our dogs and the space available for them to wander away to sniff and explore. BUT and it’s a big BUT, sometimes these locking systems fail putting us in a situation where our dogs continue running towards the road or a jogger or a squirrel or an aggressive dog leaving us with no options and no time to react. I have heard horror stories of young dogs pulling into the road to chase cats or a dog on the other side, only to be hit by a car.
We simply do not have the control we believe we have.
Whiplash injuries: Flexible leads are often used attached to a dog’s regular flat collar. My advice is that no lead should be attached to a collar, whether long, short, or flexi. I would always recommend a well fitted comfortable harness. Pressure on the neck can cause lots of issues for our dogs as, like us, it is where all the important nerves and glands are located along with the oesophagus and airway. Flexi leads, offer no easy way to slow our dogs down, other than to lock it suddenly or for the dog to simply run out of tape, causing a jolt. This can cause hideous neck injuries, and that is only if we have managed to keep hold of the lead.
Walking nicely on a Loose Lead: One thing that we don’t often realise is that walking on a flexi lead actually encourages our dogs to pull on the lead. Simply they pull ahead, we give them more room. We therefore, reward pulling on the lead. It works for the dog. Putting tension on the lead, gets them where they want to be.
When we train loose lead walking our aim is to teach that no tension on the lead gets the good stuff. I am a great believer that dogs should feel they are off lead whether they are or not. If we reward them for walking nicely next to us, then that is what they will choose to do. We can use treats to reinforce walking nicely but also the environment giving them opportunities to sniff as a reward for walking nicely next to us. A normal lead gives them and us a good consistent parameter to walk to. We can choose a lead that helps us to feel comfortable and balanced. If we feel comfortable and balanced so too will our dog.
Dog to dog communication and play: We want our dogs to learn to communicate and play with other dogs. It’s a very important part of their enrichment. On a flexi lead they are unable to do this without the dance of the dog handlers going on around them. Dogs feel hampered by being on a shortened or tense lead, they find it difficult to communicate properly and are unable to move towards or move away if they want to. If we continually put pressure on our dog’s lead around other dogs we can create some very negative associations for them particularly if they feel any pain from being constricted. Dogs getting tangled in these very thin chords if the dance of the handler goes wrong, can cause some very nasty injuries too. They are difficult to unravel and if a dog is in pain they may react badly.
SO? WHAT’S BEST THEN?
We recommend a good fitting harness, with a Y front so that our dogs can move freely without putting pressure on their joints. This along with a double-ended training lead that are designed to be comfortable to hold and to give you balance. If you are concerned about your dog’s ability to be called back in certain environments then use a long line that can be dropped and trail behind your dog. I recommend that these be no longer than 5M as at this length they are easier to use and still retain the benefits. On these your dog will be free to be able to communicate and play without causing any problems.
See more info and links to product in our shop.
