Flexi leads harmful or harmless?

I have to be honest and tell you that I’ve never liked them. I find them cumbersome to use, unable to slot them on my arm when trying to get money, poo bags etc from my pockets and, to be even more honest, I find it much easier to hold an ordinary lead at the length it is meant to be than to fiddle with a button on a plastic case.

I found out recently that there are some areas in the UK where retractable leads are banned by local councils from the beach, the town areas and parks. There are also petitions gathering momentum to present to the government for a national ban.

Everyone will have their own thoughts on this and those who use them and have never found them to be a problem will probably be horrified they may be banned. However, more and more trainers are against them, as are a lot of rescues.

So why are they a problem? They have caused accidents - leg, arm and even throat burns to people who have become entangled in them, usually when trying to separate their dog from another one after its length of lead allowed it too much freedom. They have caused eye loss in children as well as adults, they have damaged dogs legs when they have become entangled, once again when in fracas with another dog, and when they are a distance from their owner on a pavement they become a problem and a danger to passing motorists. The biggest problem I have encountered is the fact they do not encourage good mannered lead walking, and without good manners on a lead any dog can be an accident waiting to happen. We get dogs coming into rescue who actually lean away from us when we walk them and someone pointed out to us that it was because they were used to a flexi lead and therefore always walking a distance from their owner and not with them.

For our part FOSTBC includes in its terms and conditions that our rehomed dogs are not put on a flexi or any form of retractable lead. We teach them to walk on a normal lead and to walk with someone and not to pull away from them. Given that these leads have been proven to cause accidents and to maim both dogs and people we make no apology for that, we have to provide as safe a future as we can for our adopted dogs and their guardians.

To all those who love these leads I am sure you will see no problem with them but given the accident statistics I think their time might be numbered, and if that means safer dogs, children, adults and motorists then I’ve got to be all for it.

 

 

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