A while ago, I wrote about a dog attack near my home involving retractable leashes.
Here’s what Dogster has to say about them:
Excerpt:
…Consumer Product Safety Commission statistics of 16,564 hospital-treated injuries associated with leashes in the previous year. Nearly a quarter were finger injuries. The leashes aren’t broken down by type, but as the article states, such amputations were likely the result of retractable leashes.
From personal experience, I trust canvas leashes more; if the dog pulls and gets away, you have a millisecond in which to step on the end of the leash to reel him in. With a retractable lead, you’re screwed, possibly with a few fewer digits.
If your dog is not well-trained to obey verbal commands, I’d stay away from retractable leashes.
Retractable leashes must rate among the most witless inventions ever. The user has zero control over the dog.
I routinely see morons, on the pavement, with the dog 20 yards or more away – with no way of stopping it running into the road if it has a mind to. Or stop it biting lumps out of people should it feel threatened (by walking sticks or crutches, which, let’s face it, isn’t entirely unknown).
And at junctions, despite the fact that they have no idea of what traffic might be coming – because they’re too far behind to see – they just let the mutt wander across the road. Which leaves an almost invisible cord strung across the road for quite long enough to snag a cyclist. Of course, if a car snags the cord, the owner might lose fingers (good!), but the dog is likely to be roadkill. A shame, because at that point the IQ of the partnership will dip into double figures.