I've 3D printed a new dog gadget and would love your opinion

Hi fellow dog lovers!

I have been working on a personal project the past year which is basically a small ball that you attach to your standard dog leash to provide another point to hold on to.

The idea was born from wrapping my own dogs leash around my hand when I needed closer control - which works ok but after a while starts to hurt as although I consider my dog well behaved - she still gets a little excited and just loves to pull on a leash.

I've noticed people tie knots or loops in their leashes to offer something similar to what I have come up with.

www.leash-mate.com

I would love to hear your opinion and have been 3D printing prototypes to try to perfect my design before hopefully going to market. If anyone is super keen to give one a go I have a couple of extra prototypes that I could send out as well.

I hope this doesn't sound like a product plug as its really isn't - I'm a one person show and this is a project I'm working on for a new design that will hopefully help a lot of people - nothing is available for sale as yet.

Thanks heaps for any comments and I hope you're all having a great evening!

Jaan

This looks like a great idea!! I wish I had one when I had Rocky

I would suggest making a couple of different sizes

Oh Well done,that looks great
Loving that 10% of the profits goes to dogs in need:grin....brilliant

Thanks so much for the encouragement! Its been a challenging yet interesting process so far - having bought and learnt how to use a 3D printer in order to make prototypes. The next step is refining the concept and trying to spread the word!

At the moment I have a model for flat webbing style leashes up to 27mm (just over an inch wide) and another that fits round rope styles up to 15mm (about 0.6 of an inch)

Are you talking about the size of the ball itself to suit bigger/smaller hands or of the connection to the leash?

Thanks again for your replies!

Hi, this does look like a great idea. One question; in your main photo I got the impression that the ball looks like it could 'slide' up the leash when holding and the dog pulling. Do you have to squeeze it hard when using it? My lead is a rope one with a small length of chain before attaching to collar. My dog is a 'puller' and near the road I always have to wrap the lead round my hand a couple of times and often hold onto the first metal ring where rope meets chain with my other hand! Not comfortable at all! Luckily Poppy doesn't pull all the time, only initially when leaving the house and she's excited but I have to have complete control near a road. I like the idea.

Thanks for the question - the Leash Mate screws together and locks onto the leash with enough force that I have hung from it! I'm about 180 pounds (80 kg) so I am confident it won't move anywhere even walking the strongest of dogs.

If you wanted to check it out I have a video showing this on my webpage - there is a link in my first post.

Thanks for that, I answered my own question by reading more on your website. . I think it's a marvellous idea, I could see this on Dragons Den, don't know if you've an equivalent over there? Good luck.

A good idea but it does depend on how much and how long you think they will last. For instance if the dog got hold of it and gave it a good chew. There is always one that will do that not matter how hard owners try to remember to put the lead away. Also being you are in Canada how much will they cost to send to other countries eg: UK
This does depend on how heavy they are?

I hope you have a copyright sort of thing for this. I really think you are onto something. It's so simple but sounds like it would be a great tool for pretty much all dog owners.
I prefered to walk Cookie with one of those muti point clip leads, so I could extend and shorten it as needed and a few of them have a 'handle' built in further down but often it just wasn't at the right point. This would be a big improvement on that.

Thanks! I have considered Dragons Den (they have a Canadian version) although typically the Dragons want a ridiculously high percent of your business for the investment.. I am looking to use a platform called crowdfunding where members of the public can pledge prior to manufacture and receive a Leash Mate at a discounted price once the funds have been raised to enable lager scale manufacturing to commence.

I am also looking at donating at least 10% to dog rescues and shelters so keeping as much stake in the venture as possible will mean more money for dogs in need. If anyone is interested please put your email in on my website and I will let you know when the crowdfunding campaign starts in a month or so..

Durability is definitely high on my list - most things we buy are actually designed to fail in order to increase profits - having studied mechanical Engineering I can say we actually learnt how to statistically evaluate a product to make sure we are confident it will break outside the warranty period! This is wrong on so many levels.

I have designed Leash Mate to be light so it's not noticed but also to be as strong as possible in the hope it will outlast the very leashes it is attached to. Having your dog chew on it is another story though as we all know how much force they can create. If I was to make it 'chew proof' it would have to be out of metal which would certainly increase the weight and I think detrimentally affect the performance..


I really hope I am on to something too so thank you! The design is currently Patent Pending and I am looking at a full patent at the moment actually. It's not cheap though and hearing responses such as yours is definitely very helpful in deciding if investing in a full patent is worthwhile.

Thanks again for all the questions and comments - they really are helping me refine my design which is super appreciated!