Guide · Leashes

Choosing leash length and width

Length decides how much room the dog has. Width decides how the leash feels when the dog uses all of it.

Length is about where you walk

Four feet keeps a dog beside your leg. On a narrow pavement with traffic a foot away that is the whole point: there is no slack for the dog to step into the road with. It is also the length people underestimate, because in a shop four feet looks short and on a kerb it looks exactly right.

Six feet is a path or a park. The dog can drift out to sniff a hedge without you following it into the hedge. In a crowd, six feet of loose leash is six feet of tripping hazard, which is why most people who own one also own something shorter.

Five feet is the compromise, and it is what most first orders end up being.

Length	Where it earns its keep
4 ft	Pavements with traffic, vet waiting rooms, city walking, teaching a dog to heel
5 ft	Daily walking on mixed streets and parks
6 ft	Paths, fields, longer sniffing walks, dogs that already walk politely

Width is about the dog

The rope leashes come in half inch, five eighths and three quarters. Half an inch is light and packs down small, and it disappears in the hand, which is fine until a 70 lb dog spots a cat. Three quarters fills your palm and spreads the load across it instead of cutting a line into your fingers.

A rough guide by dog weight, assuming the dog is not a dedicated puller:

Under 25 lb. Half inch. Anything thicker is more leash than the dog.
25 to 55 lb. Five eighths, the default for most household dogs.
Over 55 lb, or any dog that lunges. Three quarters, and think about a double handle.

The handle matters as much as the rope

A padded loop is not a luxury on a strong dog. Bare webbing under a sudden pull is how you get a rope burn across the base of your fingers, and once that has happened you start holding the leash wrong to protect the sore spot, which makes control worse.

What is on the end of it

The rope and double handle leads all use an aluminium alloy frog clip that closes when you push it onto the collar ring. The swivel behind the clip is the underrated part: without it, a dog that circles you three times leaves you holding a corkscrew.

The leather leads are a different feel entirely. Stiff for the first few weeks, then they soften to the shape of your hand and stay there. They also do not stay clean, which is a fair trade if you like the way they age.

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