Hey I wasnt sure where to put this so.... We walk Cody on a harness and extendable lead having trained him off the halti. We have a 2nd extendable lead and different type of harness (cheaper) for our dog walker which we thought she was using. However i have seen on her facebook today she is clipping the extendable to his collar which I dont like at all. (Its the 1st time ive seen it and she has other recent pics of him in the harness) He pulls (hence the harness) and whilst he walks nicely with dogs he knows I am worried he will hurt his neck if he pulls whilst the extendable is attached to his collar. How do I approach this with the dog walker without offending her. I know the 2nd harness isnt the best (its an odd one which i will happily replace if i know she will use it) but we suggested she use this instead of the halti as he hated that. Tips on approaching this welcome. She has him 4 or 5 days a week for lunchtime walks and I don't want to jeopodise this.
Hi Carys I would just explain tha tthe reason you have supplied the harness is that you prefer that a lead should be attached to the harness rather than the flat collar. Here is a softer approach. If the dog has a harness on, why is it also wearing a collar? Just remove the collar. The walker will need to attach a lead to the harness. But first make sure the harness is not changing the gait of the dog. If it is, then find an alternative harness from another manufacturer. I would ditch the retractable lead for walking. Depending on its material, the line can inflict quite a bit of damage to the handler and/or dog if the line is not locked. If the line is locked the handle provides a poor grip relative to a well designed lead. Consequently, if the dog suddenly takes off, one can lose grip of the lead, with potentially disastrous consequences to the dog if you are walking along a busy road. For the safety of you and the dog, I urge to get a well desined lead, relegating the retractable lead to the cupboard.
Hi thanks for your reply. We will be sticking with the retractable lead but we do use others on occasion depending on where we are. He wears a collar as this has all our contact info on etc incase he were ever to go missing. He wears a collar regardless of walks. I will just speak to her. She is so lovely I just don't want to upset her.
Hi @Carys Your call. I'm sure you will not upset her. I don't want to harp about retractable leads but you might be interested in the following Youtube video: Many years ago I had a Lab and she used to wear a flat collar all the time with her details on a tag. I found her once choking on the balcony. The flat collar had wrapped around part of the fence on the balcony. Since that experience I don't put a collar on my dogs unless I am supervising them. I don't know what the situation is in England but all dogs here in Australia are required to be micro-chipped. I realise the system is not perfect if the owner fails to update change.
I pretty much agree with Michael about retractable leads. We used to use a 1" wide tape retractable with our first Lab and it worked OK. It was very large, designed for 200# dogs so the handle was large. I used to roller blade with her, and would occasionally drop the lead, if she went around a tree or post. Fortunately She was not spooked by the lead banging around behind her, and the main reason I had a lead on her at all was a legal requirement in the park where I was roller blading. I mostly use 5 and 6 ft leads with Cooper and Tilly. We have 12' tubular webbing lead with a bungee cord inside that I much prefer to a retractable, but it is a two hand lead, just like a normal 6' lead. We really only use leads in places we are required too, since both Tilly and Cooper stay reasonably close and Cooper has great recall. Tilly's mostly deaf, so her recall is not great, but she doesn't go far or fast anymore. I got a nasty though not dangerous rope burn on the back of my legs from someone else's lab who was on a retractable cord lead.
Firstly, are you really happy with your dog walker? She may be lovely, but, you are paying her to take care of your dog. I ask this because if this was a "one-off" maybe she couldn't find the harness. Even so, the second most sensible recourse would be to use a lead instead and ping a quick message across to you. Send her a message simply asking "why was he wearing a collar today, I was a bit surprised to see him on the extending lead.
I agree with Michael and Beanwood. You are paying this person, so you get to call the shots on how YOUR dog is walked... What is the reason the dog is walked on the collar if also wearing a harness? Why does she think the dog is wearing a harness? Extendable leads really are a poor idea. For multiple reasons. If you are still working on a recall, have a 10m long-line on. On pavements, have a 5ft leash on. Extendable leads TEACH dogs to pull. If you wanted to create a piece of equipment to TEACH a dog to pull, you couldn’t do better than an extendable lead - pull, and you get reinforced by more leash...
