Flexi retractable leads are made in Germany and built around a spring-loaded cassette with a one-handed brake: thumb down stops the tape where it is, and pushing the button through locks it. The range we stock is the Classic line, in cord and tape, in Standard, Dots and Neon finishes.
Cord or tape
Cord is thinner and runs out more freely, which suits small and medium dogs and open ground. Tape is a flat webbing strap — bulkier on the reel but much easier to see, easier to grab in a hurry and far kinder to skin if it runs across a leg. For anything above about 15kg, or for walking where the lead may cross a person, tape is the safer choice.
Matching the lead to the dog
Flexi sizes by the dog's weight, not by its height, and the rating is for a dog that lunges rather than a dog that ambles — sizing down to save weight is how housings get broken. Clip a retractable to a harness rather than a collar: a dog that hits the end of an unlocked lead at a run takes that jolt on whatever the clip is attached to.
Where a retractable is the wrong tool
Retractables are for open space. On a footpath, in a car park or anywhere near traffic, lock the lead short or use a fixed lead — an extended cord is invisible to drivers and to other walkers, and a lead that is 5 metres long is 5 metres of dog in front of you. Keep the brake thumb on the housing the whole time it is unlocked.
