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Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing people out with their pets, especially if it gets more people outdoors. I do take issue however with those that use the retractable leashes while on a closed bike path or road. Personally, I don’t use these leashes, don’t even own one, and I find it difficult to come up with a good use for them. It seems that this style of leash has no redeeming value. Let me explain…

My most recent example comes courtesy of a lady who was walking her tiny little ankle biter down my little street. When I say this dog was running circles around her, I actually mean running circles around her. Now she was walking just inside the grass of my neighbors yard, just off the road (we have no sidewalks), but her dog was making his circuit in about a 10ft diameter around her, which put him smack in the middle of the road for a few seconds each revolution. I put aside my olympic watching for a moment and followed her progress while still in view from my large picture window. I began to think to myself, hmmm I wonder what she would do if a car came around the corner…and behold a car just happened to be approaching from around the corner (in front of the lady, so she should have seen it). This dog was still running around his circles when the car came near and slowed to a stop and waited for the lady to notice and get her pet away and secure it while he passed by.

This lady is probably nice enough, obviously loves her pet and wants to get a little exercise for herself and the dog, but this leash (i’m using the term loosely) creates the environment for her to potentially get her dog run over and ruin her evening and whichever driver happens to be in the wrong place…

This is not my only example of people not using common sense with these leashes, in fact I think that common sense is the price paid for this leash. I’ve almost ran over a dog myself when I was unable to see the thin little rope that comes out of that thing as I passed a person on a bike path…another ankle biter hiding in the un-mowed grass just off the bike path.

I don’t really mind if others don’t want to have well trained pets, but when it starts to interfere with the safety of others and even your own pet I start to get a bit frustrated. I’m actually amazed that some communities haven’t yet banned these things as it just seems like a recipe for disaster in so many ways. I would like to go ahead and offer my formal apologies to anyone who is offended by this email, but it’s how I feel. Comment below if you like.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.