Retractable Leashes Dangerous - Page 1

March 05, 2009

Retractable leashes pose problems for people and their pets

Heather Todd didn’t bring a leash with her the day she took her pooch  

Penny to a pond near Boston in 2005. So she borrowed a retractable dog  

leash to help keep her Labrador retriever in check.  But it didn’t.  

The 90-pound dog suddenly took off running and dragged Todd across the  

sand.

When she came to a stop and recovered her wits, she spotted something  

lying on the sand. With horror, she realized it was a human index  

finger; with greater horror, she realized it was her own. The cord of  

the retractable leash had looped around her finger and pulled taut  

when Penny bolted.

“It just cut it off like a sharp knife,” Todd says.

------------------------------
Comments by Hodie:

I own a canine boarding and training facility. I can attest to the problem

with retractable leashes posing a safety hazard.

However, the biggest problem is that all the people who use them use them

because they think Fido should be able to "be free". These people are the

ones who also anthropomorphize their dogs and fail to provide proper

training and socialization.  I see them coming and the dog, with no

obedience training at all, drags them out of their car and halfway across my

training field before the dog sees me and then perhaps drags the owner over

to where I am standing. These leashes are a joke because they do not give

anyone control of their dog. Further, they have a collar on with a plastic

buckle and many, many times that buckle simply breaks under the stress and

the dog does what it wants to do, be it chase a kid on a bike or run i

I heard of one case where a lady's Yorkshire terrier yanked the leash out of her hand. The plastic case hit the Yorkie on the back of the head, killing it.

Another reason not to buy these things, if you have a small dog!