18 May 2020

In the three years that we have had her, our dog has had one lead that we walk her with – a purple lead, that has been through the wash a lot but still scrubs up ok. It has lasted well and even though I’m occasionally tempted with other colours and styles, the purple lead is the one that’s lasted. And don’t get me wrong – she’s a 5kg Maltese Shih Tzu, and you can comfortable control her lead with one finger. The lead does not suffer from a lot of strain 🙂

However… I got sucked in a few months ago, listening to friends who have a small sausage dog, who extolled the delights of a retractable lead. Much easier for walking, they said. The dog could stop and sniff and pee, and you can keep walking and the dog catches up to you. Or the dog can run on ahead a little, they said. A quick flick of the finger stops a run, or the lead can be locked into one length if necessary. Sounded perfect, right?

It did everything my sausage dog friends said it would. Chewie had the opportunities to go ahead of me, stop and sniff and pee, and I caught up and walked past her (unless it was a pick up stop, of course!! 💩), and she then caught up to me. For a month or two, it was a very enjoyable walking option.

…..Until the little cow got it into her brain that she ALWAYS had the freedom, nay the RIGHT, to go wherever and whenever she wanted!! If she wanted to sharply veer across the footpath, she damned well would. If she didn’t want to walk within a metre of me, then she dragged and tugged and pulled for all she was worth to insist that I recognise her rights.

The retractable lead hasn’t been used for weeks now, with the fixed length purple lead back in control. But she hasn’t gone but to the sweet (but quirky) and relatively well behaved dog who kind of walks nicely with a human while on the lead. This is particularly evident when I’m pushing the stroller as well – this becomes a tug of war exercise that will have my grandson learning colourful language a bit earlier than he should 🙈

Our Government is letting us walk on a retractable lead at the moment – we have some restrictions lifted and eased, making life a little more like it used to be. Let’s hope that we don’t behave like crazed Maltese Shih Tzu’s, and abuse the privilege, or demand more than we are allowed.

Otherwise it will be back onto the purple lead for the lot of you.