For many dogs a part their life will need to be spent on a lead, but how much thought do we put into this piece of equipment?
I have a breed that has unreliable recall, so they only go off lead in secure areas ( I ensure this happens numerous times a week)
The variety of leads we have on offer today is vast, length, colour, fabric type, retractable etc, but what influences our choices and decisions and what is our thought process regarding what a lead is for?
I can only presume that leads can be a frustrating piece of kit for many dogs.
Imagine if we had a piece of material tethered around a body part preventing us from going at the speed we want to go at or the place we want to get too, pulling us away from our interests and interactions, even being used to correct us, dogs are beyond tolerant!!
It's a common perception that the lead is the cause of many dog " issues", pulling, frustration, anxiety, excitability etc.
Whilst leads can exacerbate the underlying emotion it's rarely the cause, but what type and length of lead can play it's part in a dogs emotions and behaviour.
I often see leads being used in place of verbal cues, a tug at the road to make the dog sit, or used as steering device before the dog has even been asked to go a different way or turn around. I see so many leads being used in ways where we expect our dogs to know what we want them to do before we even ask them to try!!
Personally for me, nothing makes me sadder than seeing a dog on a walk in a beautiful location that's walked on a short lead and expected to walk robotically by it's humans side for no other reason than human expectation.
I'm all for dogs being able to cope on a shorter lead when needed, but i dont agree it should be expectation on every walk.
The Pulse Study, "At the heart of the dog" offered some very useful insights about leads even though the study was small in numbers.
61 dogs were involved in the study and the study looked at 2 lengths of lead and off lead activity.
Dogs walked on a 5m lead spent 2.5 more time sniffing than those on a shorter 1.5m lead amd sniffing in the right context is good for reducing the pulse rate, it can be calming!
These results were the same no matter the age, sex, breed and even whether the dogs were pullers or not.
This mimics my own observations when working with dogs who are struggling in some way, the more lead they have the less trapped they feel, which is just common sense isn't it?
Personally, a good 5m longline is the perfect one stop shop tool for all occassions and I like bright colors ( www.speakdog.co.uk/shop) that way people can see you have your dog on a lead/line, black lines are much harder to spot from a distance.
A 5m line can be shortened to a suitable length when in more built up locations, used as a longline in more open environments, and can be slack with a smile in it so a puppy or dog can learn and manage certain emotions about being tethered.
Retractable leads can offer our dogs more freedom too, but due to the lead always being tight because it reels in, there is the possibility some dogs might learn the lead needs to be pulled tight to keep moving forward, a longline offers freedom and slackness, one downside to longlines can be trying to use them when one person is walking more than one dog.
I've worked with dogs who felt a little overwhelmed when outside. They would bite a short lead in frustration. The length of lead contributed to the already overwhelmed behaviour, lengthen the lead, and the dog felt like they had a little more choice and became less frustrated and we could work on the underlying cause.
Just because walking equipment is needed and " normal " for us humans to use, how often do we stop and think how they might make our dogs feel.
I remember working with a beautiful Staffy boy who was so nervous when out, he had bitten through multiple leads so the guardian bought a metal chain lead.
I absolutely understood why, but the weight of the chain lead panicked him more. We popped him on a 5m longline chose the correct locations to help him have time to process that leads were not a scary restriction and as far as im aware he never chewed the lead again. and we began working on his associations with the outside world.
Now i want to repeat, there is no magic wand for helping dogs emotioanlly, the lead was just magnifying the emotion.
I've always said when emotions are in the right place, the lead shouldn't even exist to most dogs ( mentally) it's simply a piece of material you attach to your dog for those " just incase" moments.
However it is a piece of equipment that should be used fairly and with a good degree of thought about type and expectations.
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