You make my point. It seems odd to a European that there is no US framework legislation, meaning that you have to be aware of individual Local laws in a country with no physical barriers. I know we have silly local laws - Kendal has some dog bylaws of inspired stupidity - but we do have a national framework law for public protection. Nitpicking laws tend to make for bad cases.
(I’ve deleted my post since you pointlessly duplicated it.)
The problem was the human on the end of the retractable leash, not the retractable leash itself. You should be thankful it was a retractable leash, if it had been a non-retractable leash there would have been no give whatsoever and all of you would have died at once.
Non-retractable leashes…
Not even once…
A regular leash would not have either as long, nor as thin and hard to see. (I did see it the last minute managed to stop in time.) A dog trained on a short leash would not have been on the opposite side of the trail to its owners.
Yes the issue is always the human on one end of the leash. Their negligence begins when they select the retractable leash option and set their dog on a path to routine, ingrained disobedience (a leash that rewards the dog for pulling on the leash with additional “range” does nothing to teach the dog that it should stay by its owner unless given permission to roam), and potential danger. The dog has no say in the matter, of course.
That honestly made me snort with laughter.
If you read my comments I said Flexies can have their place with a person who’s paying attention and in the right location.
I never thought of this in quite this way, that is a really excellent point! Our trainer made it very clear that the key to training my dog not to pull was to never, ever give in to the pulling. Tight leash = full stop. Every. Single. Time. A dog who really, really wants to move forward learns that rule pretty quick.
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100% correct. A dog that is not rewarded for pulling on the lead is a dog that doesn’t pull on lead.
Posts that are being referred to are quoted as a politeness to other readers so they don’t have to go zipping back and forth to understand what people are talking about, so it’s not altogether pointless. In topics that get lengthy this is nice to have, since BB’s system does not use nested threads. (I really wish they’d go back to DISCUS.)
No, I didn’t make your point, and you missed mine. Yes, you have a national law but all that does is establish a baseline regulation. You still have the exact same obligation that US citizens do to be aware of all local guidelines, or the lack thereof. I do agree with you that a national framework would be nice to help protect people in those areas where nobody’s bothered to do anything before. But, in any case, when it comes down to a point of owner-responsibility, the USA and UK are identical.
I’m sure that there are a lot of skilled and responsible flexi leash owners (or we vets would be even busier), but yes we see what could be phrased as “shit-tons” of flexi leash related problems. And yes, it is the irresponsible/inattentive owners who “ruin” the flexi for everyone else.
And yeah, I’ve also see injuries from standard leashes (a dog that jumped out a window of a moving car and got dragged next to the car for a short while while on a standard leash is just one horrifying degloving injury that comes to mind [and maybe that one would have been less injured or a flexi…]). …but in terms of leash related injuries, the ratio massively skewed towards the flexi…
Thinking about it, I’ve never seen a single injury/problem that was associated with a traffic lead…
This is exactly correct.
Retractable leashes certainly could be used skillfully and properly, it just seems like a lot of owners choose retractable leashes as a legal alternative to having dog off leash, and let them wander and run as if they’re off leash (I.e. little owner control over the situation).
And addressing the Vet/regular human maybe I see the “horror show” cases predominantly, that is true, but as the dad of a preschooler who spends a lot of time in public parks, I also see a lot of dogs in a non-vet environment.
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Someday, someday I will have a pack of 12-20 Irish wolfhounds.
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[quote=“winkybber, post:110, topic:54593”]
Their negligence begins when they select the retractable leash option and set their dog on a path to routine, ingrained disobedience (a leash that rewards the dog for pulling on the leash with additional “range” does nothing to teach the dog that it should stay by its owner unless given permission to roam)[/quote]
This is getting pathetic.
It’s not fucking negligent for people to select a retractable leash and allow their dogs some small amount of freedom during a walk, that’s pretty shrill and insulting.
What I’ve seen plenty of properly trained dogs do is stop or return back to their masters when they’re told to do so. It doesn’t matter that they’re on a retractable leash or not. Poorly trained dogs on any kind of leash will continue to pull and tug no matter what their owner says.
I think this thread is more about people who are control freaks with their dogs (and other people) as apposed to those who are capable of responsibly allowing their dogs some small amount of freedom and not freaking out when humans choose a different method of dog restraint than they do.
I’ve seen the dogs that some control freaks overlord over and those poor dogs often look bored at best or miserable, intimidated or scared at worst. Meanwhile, the control freak owners seem quite proud of themselves with their heads held quite high. It’s pathetic. I imagine more than a few in this thread are happier with their strict control of their dogs while being negligent towards their dog’s actual happiness.
Most people choose to use retractable leashes responsibly and there’s no “negligence” involved, get over it.
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No. “Most people” with retractable leashes have no idea how to control their dogs. I see it every day.They are negligent. Congratulations for being the exception.
The retractable leash isn’t negligent, it’s that they didn’t train their dog to heel.
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Your world must be hell.
I personally am just a little greedy. I enjoy having my companion near me during walkies. The act of synchronized walks is calming to both of us, I think.
Squirrels and sheep are also impossible. Eight years of daily training. At this point I just avoid them on walks, so we can all be happy.
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[quote=“japhroaig, post:124, topic:54593”]
Squirrels and sheep
[/quote]Squirrels and sheep?
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Hey, I sympathize. One is really annoying, the other is delish.
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