I would never use a flexi lead near a road, I always used to carry what I called my road lead.

I have had a flexi lead mechanism fail on me when I was walking my old basenji in the woods, there is no way you could stop a dog from flying off when that happens.

A colleague of mine came off of his bike when a labrador ran out in front of him which was on a flexi lead, he never fully recovered from the injuries he received.

when i worked in rescue we banned our volunteer dog walkers using flexis due to too many acidents and te undoing of training

we bought a bunch of training leads instead and taught the volunteers how to teach no pulling

I'm lucky that even if the mechanism fails, Dahlia has an instant stop trained into her. Sometimes if she rushes after a squirrel, I use the stop command. Sometimes I hit the button because I have an itchy trigger finger. lol I don't really NEED a leash, even by roads. But I have to use one because it's illegal not to, so I choose the leash with the most flexibility (no pun intended!).

I think dogs are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for. Dahlia knows where the end of her flexi is and never pulls against it. She knows how to walk properly on a 6 foot leash. She seems to know the difference between the two leashes.

I also don't think flexi leashes are as fragile as people think they are. When we first got her, we wouldn't let her chase the ducks at the pond without being on leash. She hit the end of that flexi with such force multiple times that she got yanked back, turned around and even yelped (yes I felt bad; we stopped letting her chase the ducks on leash and taught her the stop command so we could let her off leash and could stop her before she went into the pond after them). Not once did the leash snap. The only time it has bounced back to use quickly was when I fastened it to the wrong tag on her collar and the whole thing of tags came flying off her, along with the leash. Totally my fault, but the leash doesn't have THAT strong of a pull back. I've noticed that the leashes I've bought now and the ones my folks bought some years ago seem to be different. I half wonder if they haven't made the mechanism a little weaker in how fast it snaps back. That would prevent injuries. The couple times I fell with the newer leashes they just sort of skidded across the ground to Dahlia and didn't snap there quickly.

I`m just curious as to why you don`t let your dog off lead?

Me? Because it's illegal. There are places I go where I can walk her off lead, but in the neighborhoods there's a leash law. I don't fancy getting a ticket or having animal control take her away from me.

I dont mind flexi-leads in open spaces as it gives dogs who cannot be let off lead a little freedom. However, I think anybody who uses them unlocked along roads and pavements need their heads testing.

I personally cant stand the things, they never even look that strong or reliable to me.

What a tragic accident for that poor little pup, one that could've easily been avoided if somebody had used their grey matter a little more.

Well, thanks for your opinion Leanne. LOL Use them along roads all the time, no problems. Maybe some of us who do that have well-trained dogs who could be off leash except for the legality issues.

I think they're really not that weak. I mean it's just a leash wound up inside something. I find the one I have to be pretty strong. And they make them for different weight dogs so you get a stronger, thicker leash for dogs that are bigger. My parents walk their dog on this tiny little one and it DOES seem weak, but their dog is small and it works for them. No doubt Dahlia would snap it, but that's why she has a heavier duty one.

I don't like Flexis one bit, although I do have one that was Loki's, I don't use it any more, and would never use it by a road at all. I have had a Flexi mechanism fail on me with Loki when he was a pup and well within the weight category for the lead. Luckily we were at the park and he had his road lead to get home on. I would never trust one of those leads 100%.

Ok, my question is do you let your dog wander about all over the place in front of you when you are beside a road? My view is that when road walking, dogs should be next to you, fields and parks are the places for dogs to have freedom to run, hoon about, sniff and do what they like within reason.

To walk a dog beside a road on a flexi when it is locked and the dog is under control is a different matter. I see people with the lead on full extent and their dog is zig zagging, doing what it likes at the end but the owner cant possibly have control. What if the dog was to veer off into the road? Even if the owner locked the lead the dog still has plenty of length and it's these people who need their head testing IMO.

I let her wander, yes. We walk on sidewalks with some grass between us and the road. She does wander back and forth sniffing grass and trees and bushes. Does she go in the road? No. But it gives her some room to sniff at her leisure. Frequently she's still within 6 feet or so of me, but sometimes she goes out to the end of the leash when sniffing something or if I keep walking while letting her sniff and then run to catch up. Sometimes she's in front, sometimes on the side of me, sometimes behind me. It's pretty rare for her to be at the end of the leash out in front of me.

I live in a city where most of my walking is done on sidewalks. I don't get to let her off lead to wander as much as I would like so this is a good compromise.