you should have to do a 2 day training course before you are allowed to use them lol, good in the right hands but i have not met many who use them correctly including the guy who uses his to walk his large staffie and has never once been able to reel it in including the time i had to tell the idiot to drop the handle when it was wrapped around my dogs leg and it was impossible to remove., the other guy sweeps the park with his on full extension and people seriously have to almost play skipping with it.
Not a fan myself but if it is for medical reasons then i can see why you need to use it.

I walk my pair on flexi's, Arran has fear aggression and can take a pop at unsuspecting dogs, Ellie loves to chase pigeons and won't come back to me ( her recall is getting better ). On the other hand they are a nightmare if you don't know how to use them properly. Quite a few years ago I was out with my then dog Ailsa and I was talking to a guy who had just taken on a rescue which he was walking on a flexi, it was a foul day chucking it down with rain, the guy held the flexi above his head and the dog ran off, I got the flexi in my gob and as a result I lost quite a few teeth. I had dentist bills of over £300 and I never saw the man again.

What she said. number of times the locking mechanism has failed when I've used flexes in the past.

I don't mind long lines; maybe due to the fact I am very use to working horses, so have little issue reeling and un-reeling.

As I don't trust my springers off lead in certain areas, they are on flexi lead.

However, it is attached to their harnesses and I also have a short lead on their collar (ruff wear) which I hold if we are walking pass dogs, sheep etc etc.

At long as they are used sensibly - e.g. in the countryside and not in the towns (especially near roads) and that your dogs are trained not to run full peat.

My springers really enjoy their flexi leads and we never had a problem (touch wood)

But this isn't the PRODUCT that is the issue but the person using said product and being totally incompetent.

Any owner with a shred common sense should of course assess whether their dog is a suitable candidate for Flexi lead walking.

My Lab is an example of an excellent candidate for using a Flexi. He never pulls, never lunges, never reacts to anything and will stop immediately.

My Slovak is an example of a candidate who should NEVER be walked on a Flexi. She pulls, lunges and her lead manners can be pretty poor generally. Putting her on a Flexi would be dangerous to me, her and everyone else.

What a shame common sense isn't so common!

my own point being that with flexis i have the double worry of potential handler error AND product (mechanical) failure

But mechanical product failure is surely minimized by using the product correctly.

Personally, the Flexi's that I have are around 5 years old and are as good as new. I have never had one break on me, nor any other type of lead for that matter.

Sadly their a number of flexi users who are as you put it incompetant at handling a flexi lead and this is what makes them dangerous to be around.

For me personally I have never seen one used correctly. The dog at the end is usually snappy and the owner doesn't seem to lock it as the small dog manages to pull out in front, I've seen this with almost everyone who has a flexi and untill this thread arrived I never thought their was a lock option on the lead o.0

I've always got awful rope burn from them! Only use them for teaching recall/stay as I find they cause the dog to pull as cannot distinguish between short & long lead.


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no, mechanical failure is mechanical failure. I can drive my car carefully but it can still break down for various reasons. unlike a lead, the user is one stage away from the pulley. Thus if a user can be unreliable, you would want his hands to be the first and only mechanism for r
Rapid response, same as when pushing a pram.
I have had lead and flexis fail or break