20 feet? That’s nothing. I train dogs that are 200 feet away from me at all times. All five of my dog training schools in 54 states do it that way.
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Which is about the maximum effective range for that pistol leash up-thread. Harsh, but fair.
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Is your dog hearing and vision impaired? 20 feet isn’t very far for voice or hand signals to travel. My most sincere prayers and wishes go out to this sadly handicapped dog. 
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DOG LIVES MATTER! /snark
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Sounds more like a dog/owner problem.
I used to use one of these leashes with the spaniel. Brilliant. Loved it. I set the leash at the length I like and lock it. If she wanted to go and sniff something off the path I’d just let it out a bit and retract when she returned.
It gave her more freedom to do her little explorations without me right at her heels the whole time.
No deaths in the park due to leash-lash, no tripped pedestrians. She was well trained enough to not even need the leash.
So yeah, dog/owner thing. Not leash thing.
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What size do you take?
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my dog was born deaf, he loves the extra freedom i can give him with his retractable lead.(responsibly).
with a retractable lead i can let him wander off and sniff around or i can keep him close to me, all depending on the situation.
why anyone would have an issue with this and feel like they have some self righteous reason to deprive my dog of this small amount of freedom is beyond me.
some of the comments on this article are way over the top and frankly a bit daft and i suggest it is them who need ‘beating with a selfie stick’ ffs
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That’s true. There’s nothing worse than tripping over something in the distance.
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Just out of curiousity, does your community have a maximum length allowed for leashes? In my community max. leash length is only six feet.
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Hey its all about the combination. A lazy owner, ill trained (or untrained) dog, and flexi leash is the worst scenario though. I think there needs to be more attention paid to finding the right fit for the circumstance. I had a dog who really needed a harness or halti when young as she has a huge prey drive. I lived in rural Maine at the time with no fenced area so we walked at total of 6+ miles every day past farms and through forested areas. I’m 4’11 and she’s a 50lb+ Pitt/Shepard mix who could easily take me off my feet. No way would I put her on a flexi leash. I just adopted a Beagle/ Shar Pei mix who is 2yrs old and needs only the slightest correction on a martingale collar to be redirected. I think if I had owned her first I would have given no thought regarding leashes at all as she would respond the same. The best, for me, is a leather 6-in-1 leash that allows for some adaptation to the situation and martingale collar or Halti.
I share your awe that we can have differing regulations in different communities regarding carrying firearms–and at the same time–in the same freaking country!!!—have other regulations about other things! It’s crazy!
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I was mountain biking quickly down a trail in the UK. A couple were standing on one side. Unbeknownst to me their fluffy little bundle of joy was crouched behind a bush on the opposite side of the trail. In between them and their pooch was a retractable lead…
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My parents’ dog never got trained properly (was my sister’s dog and she didn’t do it or they were too inconsistent when they tried). They’ve had a couple of retractable leashes, but I hated using them. Yeah, it’s fine for stopping the dog from running forward, but completely useless for reeling him back in (he goes crazy around other dogs, especially after a few incidences with unleashed roaming dogs).
I use a long (12’?) leash and give him four or five feet in front, cut that down to almost nothing if he’s misbehaving. I feel I have a lot more control over his behavior that way.
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I’m very glad that these are not legal leashes where I live (and if you look, they actually aren’t legal leashes for the purpose of leash laws in most places).
This is a useful thread: back when I had my dog, I really had no clue that the retractable leash was such a hot button. Nor did I think it made any difference with the way he pulled all the time. He’d pull at 3 feet just as hard as at 20 feet, and I didn’t know there was a better way to do it. It took a more knowlegable dog owner one session to show me how to do it right, and my dog and I were much happier after that. But I never let the leash get tngled with another person, that was as unthinkable as not picking up the dog poop!
…This article seems like an ad to me.
And FYI, yes, I do have a retractable dog leash, complete with a length lock so that I don’t have to push the damn button the whole damn time. But, I usually use it with a gentle leader harness, though my relatives prefer the pinch collar. I also keep an eye on the dog as well to pick up the mess he left behind, and to make sure that he’s safe in the route that we walk though. What I’m saying is yeah, you can listen to your iPod and walk your dog as long as you 2 important things.
- Be well equipped, even the right kind of retractable leash won’t do you any good if your dog keep dragging you around.
- Keep an eye on both your dog and your surroundings. It’s a dangerous world out there and it’s best that you keep focus on what’s happening around you; don’t want both of you to get killed in a car accident.
Then again, one could argue that you stop being a lazy material sloth and train your dog to heel.
If you have a chihuahua on a proper lead and someone is coming down the sidewalk with a pitbull on a retractable leash straining at the bit, you see how you feel.
I am on the opposite side of this situation, and it is equally frustrating. I regularly walk my enthusiastic, overly friendly young pit bull in a nearby town, working on his training.
When we walk, he wears a front clip harness and a head halter, attached to a 6 foot leather leash with a 3 foot traffic handle (this one, if anyone is interested, it’s awesome). I work hard to keep my dog under my control, and train him to control himself as he grows, so that he doesn’t annoy people and embarrass me.
Most days, our biggest problem is tiny dogs on flexi leashes, owners zoning out in conversation or just generally letting the dogs tear around unattended. Trying to walk out in the street to avoid them is useless, since they just keep on pulling that leash out to come at us.
I don’t think my pit would intentionally hurt one, he is very dog friendly, but he could easily accidentally do so, since he is big and pretty clumsy. And of course, when these little fluffballs come after us, the owners glare at me or get rude about my “dangerous dog”; I’m sure it would be all my fault if their dog got hurt in the chaos.
I don’t doubt that there are people that can and do use these leashes responsibly, but I have yet to see one, and I question the wisdom of training your dog to think that it decides how close to stay on walks.
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Now all we need to do is mix bicycles and automobiles into the conversation and this thread will really take off!
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I’ve trained thousands of humans around the world. I win. 
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Oh, please, spare us the pretentiousness of irrelevant topics. Yes, the UK has a national law about maintaining adequate control over your dogs, whereas America has no such national equivalent. But don’t forget to mention that violating your little “adequate control” regulation, on the mild end of the spectrum, can get you a £20,000 fine, up to six months in prison, have your dog killed (never been a fan of “destroyed” or “put to sleep”), and possibly get a lifetime ban on owning a dog. Also don’t mention that, on the not-mild end of the spectrum, you could actually go to prison for up to 14 years and receive an unlimited fine. Don’t forget to mention that there are at least four breeds of dog that you’re not allowed to have at all.
Now, as we do not have a national regulation on such matters, these are regulated at the community level instead. This is, as you’ve neglected to mention, exactly like many communities throughout the UK that have their own leash laws.
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