Long leads

[bronze]

We have a bolter who is fine on the lead. We want to do two things more. One is recall training. So far we have only been able to do this in the house due to her running off. She is fine in the house but will bolt outside.
The other is to get her used to what feels to her like not really being on the lead.
We have a now have a very big garden but it is no way secure. (old supposedly secure garden she would clear 6ft)
Would the best kind of lead be a very long retractable lead, a lightweight simple line or one of those lines that are secured at two points which a shorter lead she is attached to runs along?

I just have a simple nylon long lead (10 meters) for Devil Dog. I don't hold the end anymore I just stay withing grabbing distance of a part of the lead.

He wears a harness where the lead fastens on at the middle of his back. If I attatch it to his normal collar and let it trail it gets tangled in his legs.

He still bolts out of the front door at every given chance, despite his recall outside improving slightly.

We are getting there. Slowly. Very slowly, but there is an improvement.

I'm so glad I'm not alone. WE have a bolter too. He's getting better and responds to food and games, mostly food. He is on the end of a 10m line which we drop, like DooinMeCleanin. He was on a far longer line, the nylon one, plus a cotton lunge line, but he tore off and came back with only the nylon one left.

I don't like retractable leads, because they aren't much good when the dog is pulling on the end and you can't pull the lead back towards you. You also can't let go of a retractable lead and tread on it.

Our pup was neutered in Feb, so about 6 weeks ago. We don't know if it's that that has helped, or just huge amounts of bribery and corruption and sausages.

Toby plans his escapades. If he was wearing a spray collar, it would be absolutely clear when to squirt him. You can see him making his mind up whether to stay and play or to run off. He is very annoying, but as I said, the mention of food usually gets him racing back!

I have a Beagle who is a horrendous food thief. Her recall in the park when there are just people and dogs around is brilliant, I have trained her to recall to a whistle, for which she gets a piece of hot dog or cheese.

Unfortunately she will totally ignore this and everything else if she has smelt food. She will steal picnics root in peoples bags etc, so when there are people in park with food I have her on 10ft web training lead and I have to hold it as she still tries to get to food! If she starts running I have to brace my arm for the almighty jerk! I too have her on harness as she will damage her neck.

I find it better than the extending leads as they were teaching her to pull and damage to me and her when she got to full extension was much worse than web lead. However I have to make sure no one is around us when she is on long line as if she runs behind them she would whip their legs from under them, especially DC's!