Should extendable dog leads be more visible and used more safely?

[tartanhaggis7]

nice day here in glasgae went for a wee cycle. going through the park came across woman on the ground cut hand never saw an extentable lead as it was getting dark dog owner had earphones in my question WHY have an extenable lead if your'e going to use it buy a high viz / reflective lead can't be much fun dog getting his head yanked!!!!

I mean it's the dog owners responsibility to make sure their dog is safe and not a hazard to anyone else; including not using a fully extended lead in darkness while having your earphones in so that you can't hear anybody else. Cos then even if someone else tries to make themselves known, you still can't hear them and no doubt will still give you a mouthful about how it's all your fault.

Honestly it baffles me how people are actually like this. It is surely by the grace of God that they have made it this far in life.

I have dogs and extendable leads but I would never use them in that situation or any situation where there were people around. I use one to let the 13 year old out to pee at night in the garden as she’s deaf and black so it’s a nightmare to see her or get her back in but in the daytime they are on normal leads.

Those leads would be fine with the right dog and owner. But they never are. Generally the owners are obvious to creating a practically invisible trip line.

Awful things! I regularly shudder to think of people tripping over or getting a friction burn from them.

There’s much more communication with a fixed lead, just a twitch or a shortened lead tells the dog to behave differently, plus it learns how far it CAN go before pulling. You lose that with flexible leads.

Now that dogs are allowed in shops, I see extendable leads everywhere when out shopping. They are so dangerous.

I detest them. Used an excuse to avoid training lead walking and recall. Just train your dog ffs.

But I have labs, and they are way too big and strong to be at the end of an extendable lead.

I hate extendable leads. I used one in the field with my last dog and it snapped. If I wasn’t wearing glasses I would probably have lost my eye.

They're a bloody menace. The dog strays all over the place and you never know what it's going to do. And yes they are difficult to see if they're grey against a grey background or it's dark.

I once saw a dog on an extendable lead on one side of the road, owner at the other end of the lead on the other side. There was a bend in the road so they had no idea if any traffic was approaching.

Another time a line of people along the kerb waiting to cross - dog on extendable lead ran along in front of them. If the lights had changed then and everyone had stepped out the lead would have acted like a tripwire.