Why I Don't Like Retractable Leashes

A retractable leash

I have a neighbor with a reactive Doberman that is walked on a choke chain and a retractable lead. Clearly, someone has a fundamental misunderstanding of what these things are for, and it isn't the dog. That's what inspired this post.

They're Comparatively Expensive and They Break Easily

Almost all retractable leashes are twice the price of a standard leash of a comparable weight class (i.e. the strength needed for a dog of a certain weight). This isn't surprising as they're significantly more complicated, with multiple moving parts, while a standard leash in its simplest form only needs sewing or riveting in two places. One major consequence of this increase in complexity is the risk of one of the moving parts failing and rendering the "retractable" part of a retractable leash nonfunctional. There have been more that a few instances of retractable leashes failing very shortly after purchase. In comparison, unless your dog has a penchant for chewing whatever is attached to its neck, a standard leash can last decades before needing to be replaced from wear.

As a Training Tool, They are Virtually Useless

Don't get me wrong, there are very specific scenarios when a retractable lead would be useful. However, it should never be a person's default leash choice, let alone one to try to use to teach good leash manners. Corrections are virtually impossible, often resulting in encouraging misbehavior instead of preventing or alleviating it. The point of a leash correction is to redirect unwanted behavior. The best redirection in my experience is turning away from whatever stimulus is causing misbehavior. If a dog is moving toward something of interest and pulls a leash taught, it's easy to real them in with a standard six foot leash. With a retractable leash, however, there is much more distance in the leash itself and the internal mechanisms do not have an automatic rewind. As the length of the leash is thin in comparison to a standard leash, it is harder to get a firm grip on the material. If one tries to use the retractable nature of the lead to reel the dog in, it isn't difficult for the dog to instead gain more distance from its handler. I have seen this occur on multiple occasions. There are reasons why trainers do not use retractable leashes during sessions.

Every dog I have ever seen walking on a retractable leash has been very badly behaved. Not only is there the reactive Doberman, but there are also two highly aggressive Yorkshire terriers owned by another neighbor. Those two are far worse, most likely because whenever another dog is near their owner will pick them up. I saw one of them turn from a reasonable little dog to just as awful as her housemate, snarling and nearly biting her owner trying to get to my dog.

They'll Probably Make Other People Hate You

From experience, I immediately become wary of two kinds of behavior in another person and their pet when I'm walking my dog. The first is a taught leash with a dog pulling forcefully against its collar or harness. The second is the use of a retractable leash. (Of course there are always off-lead dogs, but as I'm in a city I don't expect to see them.)

Seeing this coming at me on a walk is my worst nightmare

Both of these scenarios are very unpredictable as it can be quite hard to say how the strange dog will react when in close quarters with another dog. The first scenario is a common concern for dog owners. Running at someone like a steam engine is an aggressive behavior and until they're nose to nose there's no real way to tell whether the pulling was from excitement or territoriality. The last time I had a dog come at me like that he attacked my dog.

As retractable leashes encourage unrestricted movement, making it nearly equivalent to a dog running free. It is more likely for a dog to use that sense of freedom to charge at a strange dog. Since this is indeed aggressive behavior, there is a good chance that this will lead to a confrontation. Another concern is what the leash will do if and when it pulls taught. As I said, they are prone to breakage and most dogs on this sort of leash are usually poorly behaved.

Most Importantly: They're Very Dangerous for Everyone Involved

There is a good reason why they come with warnings. The thin material of the retractable leash can cause severe injuries if it becomes wrapped around any body part and then pulled taught. These vary from burns and cuts to complete amputations, particularly of fingers. The leach can also be a tripping hazard, especially the thinner lines which may be difficult to see if the handler and dog are a significant distance apart.

A dog running at full steam on a retractable leash poses huge dangers to potentially everyone nearby. The sudden jerk when the dog reaches the end of the leash can cause serious injuries to the neck. Not only that, but an owner can be pulled off of their feet and dragged. The leash handle is also very easy to let go of due to its bulkier build. Then, the dog is running free. The sound of the handle hitting the ground can be quite frightening, but even worse is being "chased" by the handle after trying to run away. The dog can easily dart out into traffic or be exposed to other dangers, such as other dogs. Depending on the temperament of the dog, it can also expose a danger to other dogs or people.

All in all, unless you have a very (and I mean amazing bombproof very) well behaved dog, just stick to a standard leash. They're cheaper and safer and make it easier for everyone in your community to live without the need confrontation. 

Images are from Flickr.com and are under Creative Commons licenses: 1, 2.

Guess the Genotype #90

I'm going to be working on catching up on my lengthy backlog of GtG requests and suggestions.

Can you guess this dog's genotype? Its breed? Click read more to see my guess.

Images were provided by Lisa at San Antonio Pets Alive!

Pleiotropy

Two variants of the agouti gene: yellow on the left and a wild type on the right

Pleiotropy is a consequence of genetics that many people are not aware of. Specifically, this is when the most obvious characteristic caused by some genetic variant is not the only trait that is caused by the gene. Frequently, these characteristics seem like they would be completely unrelated, but it is surprising how many examples there are of vastly different traits being due to a small change in an organism's genetic code.


My three mice: Pepper (black piebald longhair), Poppy (black piebald, wild coat), and Ginger (lethal yellow satin)

Ginger before her weight gain

In May I brought home three fancy mice, having wanted to own a small mammal for quite some time. I chose my trio or females from their litter based on who came to me first, so it's just chance that I brought home a dominant yellow. Dominant yellow is also known as lethal yellow due to embryos that are homozygous dominant becoming nonviable very early in their development. As I only had very cursory knowledge of the amazing amount of variation in fancy mice before bringing my three home, I did not find out some of the interesting pleiotropic effects of the lethal yellow gene until I noticed something that distressed me. While her sisters were maintaining healthy body weights, my yellow looked very fat in comparison. After weighing them, I was surprised to find that, while her sisters were in fact right at the ideal thirty gram weight, my yellow weighed a whopping forty grams.

Lethal yellow is a gene that has been used rather heavily in scientific research. Why? Along with the golden coat, this form of yellow causes obesity, insulin-resistant diabetes-like traits, and an increased likelihood of developing tumors, among other things. Understandably, this has lead to lethal yellow lab mice being used in the research of diabetes. Interestingly enough, unlike some other mouse colors, dominant yellow had existed among fancy mice for a very long time, their usefulness for research only discovered some time later.


At first glance, most people would look at a dominant yellow mouse and say, "Isn't that pretty!" without having any idea of what else that color means. If I had previously known what this color meant, I might have decided against bringing my lethal yellow home. In all likelihood, she will live a shorter life than her sisters due to the pure chance of her being born a dominant yellow. 

Thanks to its blue eye, this cat is probably deaf in one ear.

In cats, one of the most prominent examples of pleiotropy involves dominant white. This gene, like lethal yellow, covers any other color that the animal would have. It is also inherited independently from the other white genes found in cats, which cause the tuxedo, van, and "cow cat" patters, among others. Dominant white causes an overall increase in the likelihood of the animal being deaf, but deafness is seen more often in individuals with at least one blue eye. With only one blue eye, the deafness is usually in the ear that is on the same side of the head as the blue eye. When both eyes are blue, it's highly likely that the cat will be deaf in both ears.

The white spotting genes (causing tuxedo, etc.) also can lead to deafness, but this is not seen as frequently as deafness in dominant white cats.

There are countless other instances of pleiotropy out there, some of which have not been confirmed through research. Correlation implies pleiotropy, and many genes correlate with secondary traits.

Sources are Genetics, North Dakota State University, PubMed, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Genetics (second article), Berkeley, Louisiana State University, and MessyBeast. Images are from Wikimedia Commons with the exception of the photographs of my own mice and are under Creative Commons licenses: 1, 2.