Why Retractable Flexi Leashes are Bad - Robert Cabral - Dog Training

Flexi Leashes and retractable leashes cause immense injuries to people and dogs every year, but most are unaware of them. People let their dogs walk at the end of a long line and can't control the dog or the leash and serious injuries occur. Flexi leashes are particularly dangerous for small dogs and dogs that are high energy.

In this video I give examples of what a flexi leash can do to the skin on your body - You can see the line cut right through a steak in the middle of the video.... not for faint of heart. This could be your finger or leg - and it happens all the time. Retractable leashes cause countless injuries to people and their dogs. They can be a good tool under certain conditions, which I explain in the video, but for the average dog owner, I don't recommend flexi retractable leashes.

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#flexileash #retractableleash #flexileashinjuries #retractableleashdangers

[LauraHopkinsCDL]

Totally agree Robert. I see so many dogs on flexi leads with their owners buried in their mobiles and their dogs lunges to one side or the other causing major problems. I have a long scar down my forearm because of grabbing one to stop another dog attacking mine.Great point on the spook factor. Great video. I fell out big time with a person on my channel on this exact subject. Thank you for addressing this : )

[reddragonready]

So it's not the leash but the people . I walked my previous dog for 14 years with a flexi but it does take constant awareness and forward thinking.
But having said that, now using a regular leash with my present dog, I do feel I have more control in situations things get tricky.

[kawaiilombax]

I use a short lead while walking him and take the flexi lead with me, once we get to our designated “play” and training spot I switch him out and let him do his thing for a while.
It’s a huge open area and our lead is 10M.
It works great for us.
I also suffer from bad anxiety and panic attacks and I know how unsafe it can be to completely let a dog off so I’ve always opted to use a flexi lead with my GSD, it helps a lot with my anxiety while also giving my dog freedom

[bezelleblanc]

God I hate seeing people use these things in general, especially since I'm a small dog owner who's already been attacked and had big dogs try to approach us on these types of leashes.

[mars]

I recently tried walking my 20 lb terrier on a Flexi lead. Although she’s not strong enough to pull it out of my hand, I did worry that she might break the device or snap the lead if she bolted. Because of the many dogs and pedestrians in my neighborhood, it required too much of my attention to keep adjusting the distance and locking/unlocking the thing to avoid problems. I went back to a standard leash so I can relax. I wish I had seen your video beforehand.

[whataboutthepotatoes]

Thanks for the insight. I was just thinking about getting a retractable leash. I'll consider your thoughts first.

[denisedavison]

We have never had a problem with ours, but I do see the potential difficulties.

[mohamedwahba]

Many thanks and god bless you for every thing you do for dogs

[MikesManCave]

This makes perfect sense. Most of the issues seem to be a person issue rather than a dog issue. I guess not also makes a difference of your level of training and where you walk your dog.

[Rainy]

I use a flexi leash on my old corgi for most our walks. She's slow, and sniffs a lot. If she does try to take off after a cat or towards another dog, I have decently good reflexes and my finger goes to the lock before I even realise what happened. When bringing her in, I pull her, release the lock and move the handle part towards her, lock again and pull. I never touch any other part of the leash than the very end that I connect to her, which has the little loop. She's not the biggest dog in the world tho, so she can't pull me anywhere. I would not feel comfortable doing this with a bigger dog. I have also seen the flexi leash rip, and dogs getting lose..

[yowgyrl]

What I hate about the flexi leashes is that people will let their dog walk at the very end of the length of it and not control their dog who is not trained and will watch their dog confront another dog and do nothing to reel them in but laugh at their dog's "play". Or, the dog comes around the corner of an aisle and the owner is clueless as to what their dog is doing.

[LC]

I would rather use a regular long leather or nylon leash. When I was in middle school, my best friend and I took our dogs out for a walk; mine was a husky and she had a chow chow. She had her chow on a retractable leash and I had my guy on a nylon leash. The chow was staying pretty close to us since he was playing with my guy who was on a 4 foot leash. All of the sudden another person came around the corner with the small dog the chow took off toward the small dog, my friend tried to lock the leash but the lock failed. The chow ended up biting the small dog. I will never use a retractable leash, even for recall training. Not only did I witness these failing miserable but I have heard so many other horror stories with these leashes.

[gisealdunn]

We had a terrible experience with that. My daughter was on her roller blades in the park. A friend of hers came up with a brand new puppy on retractable leash. The puppy ran around my daughter and wrapped the leash around her pulling her down right in on top of the puppy. The girl holding the leash could not control the puppy with the leash fast enough. to pull him in or adjust to his movement. The puppy died on the way to the vet of internal injuries. Thank you for the warning.

[jenniferhirschfieldsdrt]

Although this is many, many years after the video, I feel it should be added that the buttons have a tendency to malfunction with dirt or water contamination which can cause catastrophic failure depending on your use of them. I have used them for recall training as well as hiking, as it is easier for me to coordinate creek jumps without accidentally getting pulled in (this has happened...oops). I do find it easier now to use a longer leash, because the button lock would stick on.

[BBAMEG]

I feel the same way. I always have a 6ft. leather led in the truck in case I have to walk a client's dog and all they have is a flexi. Two other things: I've had to use one a few times and locked it so the dog walked next to me and he tried running a few times and the lock eventually "gave". Didn't break, just stopped working. Also, I fell with a flexi keeps constant tension on the dog and he will never get the loose leash walking you want. Just switching from a flexi to a regular leash, I've seen dogs change the way they walk with you.

[livia.]

I had one of those and you're absolutely right. I totally agree. I was so happy when it got broken. I'm never going to buy one again. I had a little poodle and he had a lot of fun pulling and running but it was dangerous. It was a lot of work to avoid dangerous situations.

[KyleBoy]

That thing you talk about a dog getting spooked and running in the middle of the road hash just happened to my friends puppy.

[paigesmith]

Thank you for this wonderful information!

[Marsyboy]

So my golden doodle is trained to heel so I Wald on retractable leashes

[ruthlessluder]

There's nothing wrong with my Flexi 26' leash. Been using it for 10 years. You just need to know how to lock it. Once it's locked it's as good as a rope leash. I love the flexibility of being able to walk him along busy street while being able to give him to freedom to roam around at parks. Again, it's all about training the human to use it properly.