Hi, hope your summer was great! Fall is almost here now … Enjoy!
Imagine these scenarios!
- You are suddenly confronted by a loose dog, looking a little aggressive, coming your way, fast.
Or
- Your dog suddenly sees a squirrel across the street and bolts into the street in an effort to reach the squirrel.
The biggest problem with these and countless other situations, when your dog is more than a couple of feet from you, is that there is nothing you can do very quickly to get him back to your side.
The products can retract only when there is no tension on the line. If you’ve ever used one, you know that you cannot grab the part of the cord that retracts into the handle and pull even a smallish strong dog back toward you. The only way you could pull a dog to safety would be to mash the lock button down, while quickly turning in the opposite direction and trying to call or drag your dog – depending on whether you’ve trained it to do emergency U-turns or whether it is engaged already with the other dog or still on the hunt for the squirrel.
To retract that runner when there is a chaotic situation brewing is squaring off with your dog, while they are spinning around.
Read ‘Top Household Hazards For Cats’, here: https://theconnectionsnj.com/top-household-hazards-for-cats-2/
Lock to prevent the dog from getting farther away, release to retract, lock, release, lock, release
. . . It’s darned hard to do even in calm circumstances, let alone in a chaotic one. I have injured myself several times with retractable leashes.
Yes, a person can lock the handle and prevent the dog from pulling the line out of the device, preventing him from getting away. But then, you may as well just have a fixed-length leash.
If you know someone who has had slashes when a retractable cord got wound around their leg when a dog was going nuts, you would know that these products come with risks.
Can anyone honestly make a case for the responsible use of retractable leashes? Please think before using these leashes. They are not for all dogs!
As always, your veterinarian is your best choice!