What lead for a giant breed? My pup keeps breaking them.

[Igot99problemsbutmypuppyaint1]

I have a 9 month old puppy, 45kg.

She isn't anything like ready to be off lead yet, too playful with other dogs, but she is getting there slowly. She only gets the zoomies about 20% of the time now when another dog approaches her, and she sits beside me within about 30 seconds now too, but I'm just worried she will get excited and go to play with a reactive dog, or a much smaller puppy so I would really like to be at 100% before i let her off lead.

I have bought extendable lead after extendable lead, the metal attachments to stop her chewing, she has a harness which has made a slight improvement too, but the leads keep breaking.

She rarely gets to the full length of the lead, so it's not her pulling, but she is a bit of a pain for wanting her lead in her mouth and having a chew on it.

I've tried giving her various other things to chew as she walks, but she isn't interested.

I do a lot of work with her training lead, and she isn't so chewy with that, but I can't use that for taking her on walks as I need more control of her.

My dog trainer just says it's a phase and she will grow out of it, and hasn't really recommended anything beyond giving her something else to carry.

Can anyone recommend a robust lead for a large breed dog? I'm probably going through a lead a week at the minute. TIA.

my dog is 30kgs and I use an extandable lead designed for 50kg.

The reaosn is that when he needs the lead is because he has jumped/lunged/jerked towards another dog (eithe in play or because he is reactive) and when he does that the strain on the lead in enormous.

Also, as soon as you see another dog coming, you shorten the lead to about 6-12 inches. Any longer and there is too much space for him to build up speed as he jumps/lunges, and that puts more pressure on the lead.

but your real issue is letting him put the lead in his mouth, any slight chew on the lead reduces its ability to takethe weight.

You need to be much much tougher about him not having the lead in his mouth.
If you always keep the lead taught and he is walking properly, his mouth shouldn't be anywhere near the lead.

I had to lead train our previous rescue, stop start stop start down the road, it took us 20 minutes to go 100 yards. But it worked.

Just practice with the long line. You and the dog
Extendable leads are not really designed for big dogs.

I have a 2yr old 35kg dog (he is big and fluffy so most people actually expect him to weigh more). I let him off lead sometimes under carefully controlled circumstances but more often than not eg if any joggers, bikes, dogs or wildlife that I don't want him to chase, I keep him on the long line.

When I first had it we both used to get tangled up but now we've learnt and find it easy to use. I learnt how to coil it in and out and he learnt how to step or jump over it so he never gets it tangled round his legs any more. It's no good if he gets the full on zoomies and runs in a circle. I just have to let him go if that happens and it's no good in woodland but for most situations it a a good balance of freedom and control for us. I use a short lead by roads etc and the long line in the park/ open countryside.

I've not got a giant breed but he is quite big and strong!
We put him on a king line when we're staying in one general area (park field etc) keep throwing toys either side of us so he stays within the diameter of the circle, if he does see another dog and doesn't recall, stand on the line so he can't go further then reel him in manually!

For walking we tried retractable thinking it'd give more freedom but just found it stressful. Swapped it for a 2m Halti lead which I love. At his longest he has 2 meters which I've found is plenty for just walking and allowing him to sniff, but you can also change the length by clipping the end to the D rings at the ends and in the middle, so when I need him on a short lead it's a quick change. Very strong leads and comfortable to hold as it's a bit padded. Also because it's got clips at both ends, for more control if your dog is a puller, you can clip one end to the front of the harness (if you have that type of harness).

I think this is what you need by the sounds of it.

amzn.eu/d/jiq7eYG

So many spelling mistakes and autocorrects sorry! 🤦‍♀️ I meant long line, don't know what a king line is! 😆 they need to hurry up and add the edit function to the app!!

I have a huge dog. Not as big as yours will be but bigger for now. You cannot and must not use an extendable lead on any dog bigger than a rat.

Get used to the long line and use that. I wrap mine up so it's shorter where I need it to be and varying lengths along the way. Easy as pie.

I don't rate harnesses as they allow more pulling - I know some say they don't but there's a reason sled dogs have them. I use a short rope lead when on a short walk. Both with a collar of sorts.