Choosing a Dog Lead

Choosing a dog lead for your dog seems like a fairly straightforward decision to make. The problem is that with so many different styles and designs of lead on the market, coupled with the variety of different dog breeds, deciding on the right lead for you can be a little more complicated than you first thought.

You may end up deciding that you need more than one lead for different purposes, for example, if you have a puppy then you will need to train it to walk comfortably by your side on a short lead plus you will want it to sit, stay and when called. For this you will need 2 leads:

  • A short dog lead for walking your dog around town or along streets.
  • A long lead for training your puppy to sit stay and come. This type of dog lead allows your puppy to get a few meters away from you but not run off. You can then train your puppy to sit and stay and slowly walk away increasing the distance between you and your dog before calling it back.

Once you have decided on the use of the dog lead you are going to buy, the next consideration is the size of the dog you are buying it for. A lead designed for a small breed such as a Yorkshire Terrier or Jack Russell probably wouldn’t be strong enough to hold a Rottweiler.

There are basically three categories of dog leads to choose from:

  • Short Dog Lead – This type of lead are designed for walking your dog along streets or any time you need to keep your dog close to you and under control. They tend to be about 1m to 1.5m (3ft to 5ft) long.
  • Training Dog Lead – These leads are used, as the name suggests, to train your dog. They allow your dog freedom of movement away from from your side up to a distance of between  1.5m to 10m (5ft to 32ft). They are a single length of leather, nylon or rope that you loop around your hand to increase or decrease the length of the lead.
  • Retractable Dog Lead – These are similar to training dog leads, but instead of having to be looped around your hand to shorten or lengthen the distance, the lead automatically extends and retracts into the solid handle as the dog moves around. Retractable dog leads also have a locking mechanism that you can use to fix the length of the lead anywhere along its length so can be useful for both walking with your dog close by side and for training purposes. They range in length between 5m to 10m (15ft to 32ft).

Whatever type of lead you are looking for, you need to check that it has been design for use with your dog breed. Normally there is a size guide on the label that will either tell the type of breeds that the dog lead has been designed for use with, or will state the maximum weight of dog that the dog lead will safely hold.