[Suburban Gal]

“I dont understand why everyone has problems with a retractable lead, if a dog is taught how to walk properly on a lead they should not pull or chase cats..In Australia everyone seems to use them here on big or small dogs with no problems..” sue66b

As I said, if you have a dog like White Paw that’s exceptionally trained via formal training or a dog like Lexi, my last German Shepherd, that acts well enough without all the formal training, then there should never be any concern over using a retractable leash.

It’s all about how well your dogs behave on a leash or how well you make your dogs behave on a leash, as is currently the case with Gizmo who’s NEVER really been on a leash prior to his adoption.

“I use one on my real strong staffy.. When I first rescued him I could not use a retactable lead as no one must of walked him or taught him how to walk on any type of lead, 2 weeks of training & Patch walks perfect now..” sue66b

This sounds a lot like my Gizmo.

When we adopted his a little over 3 months ago and walked him on a 4 FT nylon leash we bought for him just prior to adoption, it’s like he had never been on a leash before. We experienced the same result when we used the retractable and a 6 FT leather leash bought for training purposes. It’s like he didn’t know what a leash was and how to properly make use of it. In the beginning, it was quite awkward walking him on any leash. It took some work, but in the end we got him walking properly on ALL of his leashes. He tends to behave more on the 4 FT nylon and 6 FT leather leash because he knows he can get quick pops (collar corrections) on those when he does something he’s not supposed to do, but overall, we generally don’t have a whole lot of problems, let alone serious ones, when he’s on the retractable.

I don’t understand why people think they can’t have control of their dog on a retractable because people like us are proof they can. It’s all about how you, the owner, approach and deal with a dog on a retractable leash.

IMHO, it shouldn’t matter what leash your dog is on. You should ALWAYS have control and make your dog behave or tow the line. Any decent or responsible owner would.