That's so very sad, and horrible for those watching, too.

I expect the little girl was devastated. Must admit I'm not a fan of flexi leads, on pavements.

rest in peace little fella,

Wys
x

but the comment that flexis should bew banned never said that it means you can only use a short lead or a long line by the road.

training lead?

agreed though, flexis and long lines have their handling issues that require certain skills.

the use of both requires a training session in a controlled environment firsthand.

except, the long line is the lesser of 2 evils as their is nothing between you and use of the lead, unlike the flexi.

and in the list of *potential* risk factors between the 2 tools, the list for flexis is known to be longer

also, flexis are counter intuitive to recall and loose lead no pull training

Oh poor little thing how awful for the pup and child

It just gave me a flash back to a short while ago when I was driving home late-ish one night and turned into our road, luckily I was just crawling trying to avoid cars parked stupidly, when I saw this dog in the middle of the road, it wasn't until I stopped that I realized that it was on a flexi lead and the idiot owner was on the path texting, and had no idea where the dog was if I'd have been going my normal speed round this corner, the dog would have been a gonna

What is the difference between a training lead and a long line? I thought they were the same thing, just long leashes really. I have a 30ft one. I never use it. I HATE the thing. All it did was teach me how to get tangled in a leash and how to get it out of bushes and how to ignore my dog while trying to gather it up. No thanks! I'll take my neat retractable!

I haven't found it counter intuitive to teach loose leash walking or anything on it. Pulling on a leash is pulling on a leash and since I can stop the leash and 2 or 4 or 6 feet it doesn't really make it anything but a tool that allows me to give my dog more freedom without creating havoc.

Please note that in EVERY incident where a dog on a flexi is killed or injured the person at the other end of the leash is at fault. Text? Chatting on the phone? Not paying attention? That's not the leash's fault. Plenty of people use flexis with no problem at all. I'm 100% attentive to my dog. The same couldn't be said when I tried the long line.

a training lead is a lead for training...

long leads are quite long to give dogs freedom that cant be off lead and used for recall training

you arent supposed to use a flexi or a long line in or around bushes.

you should have either reeled in or walked in a different direction beforehand

a long line should be used as part of a training programme...hence learning how to use and feed the line thru both hands safely and efficiently in a controlled environment beforehand.

the long line has advantage over the flexi in training and control as, unlike the flexi, there is no intermediate mechanism you need to rely on (button and pulley).

no pull and recall training require loose leash, be it training
lead or long line, combined with treat training, better still if the Look And Treat method employed.

none of which is possible if you have a fixed flexi which serves to remove fluid options of movement and flow, which gives the dog some sense of freedom and choice, thus training the dog to feel like its making the choice you want.

whereas a fixed pulley system gives a sense of restriction, which can result in negative reinforcement and defensive handling.
the other option being not fixing the lead at all, whereby you have the potential to teach the dog to lunge thru to a dead stop.
very counter intuitive to no pull/no lunge training.

These are the reaons why dog trainers wont use flexis in classes, but will use training leads/long lines.
I am a dog trainer.

I dont know about america, but the uk is awash with stories of dogs flying out to end of flexis and the cable snapping, the handle bouncing back and hitting walker on the head, the cable/cord cutting into legs of dogs/people (agreed, this can happen with long lines), dogs getting killed by traffic, dogs necks getting suddenly jarred as they hit the dead stop...
not due to texting etc, but due to the owner's reflexes being too slow at hitting the button on time.

a handler with bad timing or poor concentration will fail on a flexi or a long line, true.
in which case, the better H & S option for such a person is to give them a piece of equipment whereby the control just equals; person....hand....lead...dog
as opposed to; person....hand...button...pulley...lead....dog

Thanks for your "advice" but I wasn't looking for it. There are bushes all along our sidewalks. With the flexi, she keeps close to me, it reels in, no catching. With longer lines, I wouldn't be able to reel it in quick enough to avoid the bushes. I don't use them IN bushes, but bushes are in the general area. I'm not going to walk away from the bushes. If I did I'd have to walk in the middle of the road. You're not making much sense for a "DOG TRAINER OMG!!!"

And funny but I've walked Dahlia on a flexi since I got her. She walks well on a loose leash, and has been trained to a brilliant recall. I don't use a flexi for training. It's not a training tool. It was never meant to be. It's a tool for walking your dog. And I have heard an occasional mistake made with them. Considering the amount of flexi and other retractable leashes sold, nowhere is awash with injuries or deaths. And not everyone who use one is an inattentive owner or a person with no clue or bad timing. I'm a lot quicker with the button on a flexi than I am with grabbing a leash (which hurts a lot more too!).

I find you have little control with a flexi-lead. With a flexi you have 2 options only. Brake or release. A long training lead is more like reins with a horse - there is a constant dialogue between dog and owner, from loose-lead walking (not possible with a flexi) to gentle pressure, to emergency brake.
In fact the flexi isn`t flexible at all IMO.

I actually find I have tons of control with a flexi. Even more than a long line! I can keep her a foot from me. I can let her roam around. I can turn it into a loose leash if I lock it at 4 or 6 feet. I'm not leading my dog by a leash. It's there to keep her safe. I allow her to make choices as to what she sniffs and where she goes. The dialogue between us is verbal and visual.

I find no problem with flexis when used responsibly. I sincerely think that they need some kind of warning on them about road use though. Or that there should be some kind of law regarding lead length next to a road.
The only time I ever saw a dog run over was when a man thought he had perfect control offlead. I hate that, as I have very good control with Jet but would never dream of letting him offlead next to even the quietest road, it's just too risky. This was also a JRT type. The dog died almost instantly, it was terribly sad.
I am sorry for what you had to see, I know it's horrible and I just hope that child's parents and the child itself learn from this tragedy

I never doubted your abilities.
Rope burn or hard leash grip are probs, hence the practice sessions in controlled environments beforehand (with gloves) and making sure you buy soft edged material.

although you should not be grabbing the long line or (after due practice and training) be at the point of needing to do so.
as it's a two handed proactive feed system