Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Why are retractible leashes evil?
I've seen pretty much everyone on here say they're evil but nobody explains why. Obviously the people in the post below were stupid but that's more the fault of an inconsiderate owner than a retractable leash.
I use one for my dog when we go hiking at Fort Snelling or other state parks. When nobody is around, she has length to explore the trail. If we're in an area where I wouldn't see people with enough time to reel her in, she's next to me. As soon as I see people and she hears the click of me reeling her in, she stops and walks next to me. I certainly don't let her run up to random people or dogs. I can't really see what harm this is doing to my dog or anyone else. Someone please enlighten me.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Re: Why are retractible leashes evil?
The problem is that the majority of people using them don't seem to use them responsibly like you do.
Do you use one when you're just going for a walk around the neighborhood? Like Dawn said, they do absolutely zero for teaching proper leash walking because the sensation of pulling is always there and people walk along with their dog 20' in front of them in situations where there would be NO time to reel their dog in.
Maybe my dog is weird. She usually spots something to sniff, falls behind, runs ahead, finds something to sniffs, falls behind, runs ahead and on and on. There's always something interesting to check out before she gets far enough to pull.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Hah, maybe she could give Renzo lessons in "stopping to smell the roses". He is always PULL PULL PULL on walks.
For me, enough people use them improperly that I'd be fine with them being GONE in public.
I rarely take her around the neighborhood or on paved trails because it's too hard on her nails (nail condition that makes them brittle and they fall off - the less hard we are on them the better). On the rare occasion we do - like twice a year maybe - I use the retractable but reeled in all the way.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
We also use a retractable leash, but are the same as you, we have her by our side with other people around. Our dog is also just like yours in that she finds something to sniff, falls behind and then runs ahead, repeat.
I don't like them because every dog I see on one of those is followed by an irresponsible pet owner, who's quite often starring off into outer space as their dog is accosting my dogs who are always on a 6ft leash. I cringe when we walk round the lake and see one coming.
I jog and run 5k's with my dog and even then he's AlWAYS on a 6ft leash, he doesn't need anymore then that, and it actually sets a good pace for us for the entire run if I run fast enough that he can be loose leash and running at the speed he wants.
There may be people who use it responsibly but in my opinion its just about as bad as just letting them run free off leash.
I agree with this.
Also - we worked so hard on loose leash walking and heeling, now Rusty does not loose leash walk, he heels. He knows when he's on leash that he has to be on your left side and by your knee. We don't exactly walk for fun - walks are a workout and for Rusty to work at paying attention to me and heeling. Not only is it exercise, but a walk is for learning. I'm one of those weird people that likes to have my dog in the heel position all the time though.
I have one that I use at the park when we're absolutely alone but our dog is on her 6' leash 99% of the time. I don't like flexi-leads for a number of reasons "in public".
#1 - they have no concept of how far to go and could get really hurt if they take off thinking they're gonna get 20' and you hit the brake.
#2 - *most* people I see with them have absolutely no concept of how their dog is behaving because it is stretched out to the max and their dog is accosting people, pets and property along the way. It always seems like they're also oblivious to the tangles they're causing when they meet another dog 20 feet downstream because they have no control of their dog.
#3 - they're really difficult to hold onto in a situation where the dog is moving with any speed. Even when I've been alone in the park playing, I find it really challenging to hang onto that handle if our Lucy takes off. If it were an emergency situation where we were getting into a tangle or something, I have almost no confidence in knowing I could maintain control of the leash. My regular old loop handled leash works MUCH better.
#4 - leashed walking means I'm in charge, not my dog. If she wants to run and be silly, she gets to do that at the dog park. Any other time we're walking, she should be under control, at my side, and paying attention to me.
So from what I'm reading, it depends on the dog and the owner and not that retractable leashes are absolutely and necessarily evil. Clearly every dog is different as is every owner.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
I agree with both of you. My thing is that, like pps said, more often than not on one end of a retractable leash is a dog walking/running around willy nilly and on the other end an owner either not paying attention or frantically trying to get the dog under control. Annoying to the max.
That being said, I think you and your pup are an exception.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
That's not being a stick in the mud that is being a responsible pet owner.