Retractable Leashes Dangerous - Page 2

 ... If I had gotten scars, bruises or rope burns from my *own* dog, I wouldn't mind.

What I don't appreciate is having to get a rope burn from someone else's ignorance.

 Jayne241,

I did not mean my comments to suggest that the woman and the little girl and the Rottie were in the right. No child should be walking a dog like that. In fact, I will broaden that to say that no one who cannot control a dog should be walking it in public....period. As for apologizing, don't hold your breath. Most people are idiots when it comes to walking their dog and assuming a child can control any dog.

They are dangerous because I am a spaz!  There is an art to the retractable and I have never been able to master!

So I have given up!

Hell Mark can walk a hotel parking lot with two and talk on his cell no problem....
I would be hog tied and a speed bump if I tried it so I dont.

 

Considering some of the things I have witnessed myself regarding these horrible leashes the thought of my dog being 26 feet away just stuns me.  She might as well be loose.  Shelley, I'm sure you have complete control over your dog on the other end but what about others who don't.  In a blink of an eye you could end up in the same kind of mess jayne241 suffered or worse.  Bad things can happen on short leashes too, I know but why increase the risk?  Look at it like this, you've let your dog out all but say 2 foot and you see someone else with their dog maxed out on his retractable and he is charging and dragging his person along.  You call your dog but he comes back on the opposite side of a tree and can't reach you because he is out of leash and the crazy dog and he connect.  You can't reel him in, they're tangled up and going at it and you and the other owner are yelling, cussing and trying to get control of two dogs by pulling on those stupid leashes.  All that ugliness over letting one's dogs feel "free". 

Seen and don't want to be a part of it. 

Deb   

i love retractables in the winter when i don't feel like wading thru 2 foot high snowdrifts so my girls can go potty. they have to go all over the place and the retractables make it alot easier. every one i ever had came with a warning about not grabbing the cord, only using them on obedient, well-trained dogs, and instructions to use the safety loop that comes with in case the regular collar breaks. i pull the dogs in close to me when we are near people and let them out again when we aren't. i personally have never had problems with them, other than my really old (8 years ago i bought it) 26 foot tape getting clogged with dirt and snow in winter. then it doesn't retract like it should but spunky is very obedient and if she goes too far i just step on it to stop her.

I prefer to take the position of handler responsibility. I have used Flexi's for years and the pitfalls are manageable. Many of the new model Flexi's have a flat ribbon line instead of that dreadful cord, and that greatly decreases the likelihood of injury from "rope burn". Our Flexi's stretch out to maybe 16 feet but we don't let our dogs have all that space and run willy nilly. It is unfortunate that an entire product line is deemed unsafe due to a handful of serious injuries caused by the in-DUH-viduals who can't use them properly. Beings that this is America, I'm waiting to hear news of the class action lawsuit coming... (sigh)

Glad to see I'm not the only person who HATES those damn things!!  I thought it was my prejudice as an obedience person to prefer a leather or cotton lead... For ranging dogs on a walk a nice horse lunge line works great.  I also almost became lunch for a client's particularily nasty dog as we walked out to her car (I was carrying prescription food for her) and the beast  kept running around my legs and nipping me... She was a TOTAL spaz on keeping the lock button down so that I had some safety margin.  Give me old fashion ropes even over the flexi leads.  

I have never liked them. Probably because my main experiences with them have been ignorant owners letting their dogs run amok under the pretense that they're leashed.

I use Flexi's, but I don't like them. Let a dog get a good head of steam going from one side of you to the other extent of a 26' leash....that's 52 feet, by the time they hit the end of that leash there's enough momentum to lift a person weighing 400+ lbs, if caught unawares, (I'm talking about one of our big GSDs now, not a Chihuahua!) & you see so many people using them that are oblivious to what the dog's doing on the other end! And they are not for training. Period. I have been collecting a rather large assortment of leahes, but my 8 foot double clasp leather police lead is my favorite. Place that made it  went under, wish I could find another. It was expensive, but worth it. I use the flexi right now, because it allows my dogs to wander a little, on my own property, while I sit with my operated leg elevated. The flexi's are never used off our own property, & I know if I drop the thing , they will return on call. I sometimes wonder why I bother with it. I just can't allow my dogs off lead until I get that nice sturdy 6' fence up.  jackie harris