“They are prone to breaking, give you little control, and absolutely worthless when wanting a dog to heel.” -Shasta220
I’ve never really had to worry about them breaking because they never did. If anything, I used the hell out of them until I couldn’t really use them anymore and then had to replace them with a new retractable.
As for a lack of control, 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.
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.
“They ENCOURAGE pulling as well since there is always a tiiiiiny bit of tension on them.” -Shasta220
In Gizmo’s case, any leash encouraged pulling since he had never really been on one before. The same goes for others like Gizmo, like sue66b’s Patch.
But that aside, retractables encourage pulling if you, the owner, allow them to encourage pulling.
17 hours, 7 minutes ago
