Oliver is almost 5 months old and 30 pds. he has chewed 2 nylon leashes. he chews on them while walking or puts in his mouth, they get tattered and freyed then they just break eventually. I need something he can not chew through.
The best thing to do is teach him not to do that. Get a different tuggy toy for him to play with and use it as a reward for him walking nicely on a lead. Start with a pace or two and build it up. You could also use food.
ok thank you. he walks well once we get started. but sometime getting started he will put it in his mouth. once we start walking he is usually fine.
Back-fastening harnesses are always a good idea for puppies (and especially when using a retractable), but I doubt it would stop him getting hold of the leash if he was determined. Why do you think he's doing it? Excitement? Frustration? Something else?
no sure why he does it. excitement maybe or just teething. i might try the harness and see how he does.
I don't particularly like retractable leashes, but if you are going to get one, be sure it is webbing, not a cord. You can loose a finger or get a bad rope burn from a cord. I used to use a 1" wide retractable with our first Lab, when I went rollerblading with her in a place she could not be off lead. Now if we want a long lead, we use a Roughwear lead that has a bungee inside of the nylon tubular webbing.
Definitely NOT a cord. The flat tape ones are much, much safer. And I would advise it only in "off lead" type places and never on road walks or busy areas. The catch on these things are not reliable and if, for instance, your dog spotted a cat and decided to lunge into the road, they are completely untrustworthy. I use a retractable lead on our morning country road walk where I don't trust Lilly off lead, but have plenty of visibility for cars. And pheasants. And the odd deer......
Last summer I went out for a walk with my sister and her cocker spaniel on a retractable. I hadn't used one before and I was appalled at how little control there was. He has no interest in moving off the pavement and doesn't chase, so she let him extend it, but when I was holding it, all I could think of was that I had no way of reining him in quickly if necessary. We were in a very quiet area, but even so, I was on edge the whole time. In a park or similar, then fine, but they are definitely not suitable for extending when walking on pavements.
Marcus uses a retractable lead with Casper, but only in wide, open and quiet spaces. He uses the lead in conjunction with the Haqihani harness, which sits in a good position on Caspers back. Casper never lunges or pulls on it, just likes to potter alongside, but nip off into the verges for a sniff. It also means that when all three are out they are more or less together, the other two stay fairly close, around 5 - metres and Casper likes to be able to trot alongside them. We are very, very careful though. For example, I am normally ahead watching out for other dogs so we can take appropriate action. Marcus is quite good with the extending lead, I don't have his fine dexterity, so tend to use a long (6-7foot) biothane lead that I can also fix to my waist.
Oh no, I'd never use one in this situation. They're basically like being off lead, but they can't disappear over the horizon. As you know, our lead laws prevent us from letting Ella off lead in most places. We've used the retractable lead when we'd like her to have more freedom but are not allowed to let her off lead. We treat her as if she's off lead. To be honest though, I'm finding that we use it less and less. I now find that she's very reliable off lead so I just let her off and call her back if I see someone coming
Do your lead laws define a length of lead? It seems that wherever we are told we have to have our dogs on lead (roads, public transport, public buildings etc) that it's defined the lead must be no more than 2m long. It makes sense that it is defined if they want the dogs to be "on lead" because otherwise I'm sure people would take the mickey and use 100m lines or something ridiculous and say "but my dog is on a lead!"
Yep 1.5m but, of course, I might use a retractable lead but I'd never use it at a length greater than 1.5m Yep, it makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, where we live, you can be in the middle of bloomin' nowhere, hike for 10km through the bush and not see a singe person but it is still classed as an on-lead area. Madness.
Oh, I'm with you. If our laws were that Draconian, I'm sure I would be - er - "pushing the boundaries" somewhat, too
Same here....I'm waiting for the day I get a ticket! I think on trails it would be a result of a complaint, but in the city the bylaw trucks are out in full force now that the nice weather is here and the "fair weather" dogs are out. I always let her off leash and I've almost got caught 3 times this month! The fines are quite big.
If the retractable lead has a 1" wide web, you can grab it and yard them in like a long line, but the handle for a lead like that is big and heavy. I still have one, but have not used it in years. If Cooper or Tilly are on a leash, I usually want it to be fairly short. They can be off lead in a lot of places that are technically not off lead, but most folks don't care as long as they are under control. Cooper has a great recall and Tilly doesn't range too far, and can't move very fast anyway.
I don't think there is ever a case for using a retractable lead. Normally poorly made and thereby unsafe equipment. But let's put that issue to one side. The objective is to deal with biting the lead. Next time your dog bites the lead take hold of the dog by the collar and let the lead fall on the ground. In most cases the dog loses interest in the lead because it no longer reacts to the dog's biting. Pick up the lead once the dog has lost interest.
I'm a big fan of my Flexi retractable leash. There are lots of great tracks and walkways here that are "on lead" so they're perfect for those situations. I'm interested to hear that your leash laws state the length of the lead - I've never seen the length of lead mentioned here.
