Choosing the right type of lead/leash is as important for dog training as choosing the right type of shoes for running. The wrong type of lead may teach your dog to pull, injure your hands, your dog or other dogs, or even get your dog lost. Leads differ by type, length and material. I will describe the most popular types and the ones I think are useful for a regular dog owner. There are also numerous special use leads, such as the ones used for dog show handling or for canicross, but I won’t cover them as I am not an expert and most people don’t need them.

Types of dog leads

Extending\retractable lead Image from flexilead.com

If you have one of these and if your dog pulls on the lead, is reactive/aggressive or just large and bouncy, stop reading and go put in the bin. These leads are OK to use with smaller well-behaved dogs.

Regular lead Image from petsathome.com

These can be made from nylon, leather or rope-like material and usually range from 1m to 1.5m (standard 5ft) in length and come in various width. They can be very cheap (thin nylon) or quite expensive (leather with a fancy design). To be honest, I find most of them quite uncomfortable and never use them, but most people do, so it might be worth a try. I only ever use the cheapest thinnest 1m lead, when a dog needs to wear one at home for training or behaviour management purposes.

Adjustable lead (my favourite!) Image from bitiba.co.uk

This type of lead can be adjusted to be a bit shorter or longer and is also useful when you need to secure a dog somewhere (e.g. to a fence or a table). This one pictured is by Hunter and it is my personal favourite. It is just the right length (2 meters longest), made from soft round leather so it doesn’t hurt my hands and lasts years of daily use in all kinds of English weather. I am not being paid bu Hunter or any of the shops that sell it, I just really like it and have been using it for years. It is available from Zooplus and Bitiba.

Training lead Image from dogleash.co.uk

This is essentially just a very long lead, usually 15 meters long. If you have a puppy, a new rescue dog or a dog that has not yet mastered a recall, you need this one. It will allow you to give your dog a bit more freedom (use it if you are tempted to buy an extending lead). If you’re a bit more confident, you can just drop it on the ground and practice recall.

by Ekaterina 2 Comments Does your dog walk you? Lead pulling is one of the most frustrating dog behaviours. Unfortunately, our natural response only makes it worse. In fact, there are several mistakes that I often see:

1. Following the dog. Naturally, if the dog gets what he wants (e.g., to sniff that tree) when pulling on the lead, this behaviour is rewarded and the dog is likely to do it again.

2. Pulling the lead in the opposite direction. This may not make things worse, but it is definitely a waste of energy. Dogs are very stubborn and can tolerate quite a lot of pain. The more you pull, the less your dog cares about it. You might be able to overpower the dog, but it won’t teach him anything.

3. Jerking the lead. This can definitely worsen your dog’s lead skills. In order to jerk the lead, you need to loosen it first. Therefore, your dog will receive negative experience right after it felt the lead  loosen. This may teach the dog to avoid a loose lead, hence the dog will pull.

4. Choke chains, pinch collars etc. This is the worst of all. I sincerely hope that none of my readers have ever used or considered them. Besides being cruel, these devices are useless to say the least, and often dangerous. These collars are useless for training for the same reason that pulling the lead is: dogs are tolerant to pain. Choke chains and pinch collars can and often do provoke aggression. Dogs often pull the lead when they see other dogs,  and they can potentially learn to associate the negative sensation from these collars with other dogs.

The least you can do is to stop making these four mistakes, and your dog’s lead skills may improve or, at least, stop getting worse.
[null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "https://milosdogtraining.com/tag/leads-collars/", "unformatted_src": "https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-eATy6yHx_ME/UFn0QU8S2II/AAAAAAAAKGc/t9ZQ0VDVBZc/s512/2011%252001%252014_Big%2520Bear_0010-1.JPG", "src": "https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-eATy6yHx_ME/UFn0QU8S2II/AAAAAAAAKGc/t9ZQ0VDVBZc/s512/2011%252001%252014_Big%2520Bear_0010-1.JPG", "formatted_filename": "Big Bear", "rendered_width": 292, "rendered_height": 410}, null]