On Retractable Leashes and Tiny Victories

People who adopt Greyhounds are given quite a few speeches about what to do and not to do and they’re all for the safety of the pooch and everyone around her, though they can seem a bit over-the-top for the average never-had-a-dog person (that was me until 5 years ago).

One of the speeches is about the dangers of retractable leashes and how you should never, ever use one with a Greyhound. The speech includes horrible stories, and last summer there was one such story involving a terrified dog, a retractable leash, and a pole. The dog died.

I’ve seen blog posts, forum posts and articles about the evils of the retractable leash, with the opposite side saying if it’s in the hands of an experienced person and a well-trained dog, there should be no problems.

What I didn’t think of until yesterday, was that little dogs on retractable leashes (not one person in my neighborhood has anything other than a retractable leash for their dog, and none are of the ribbon variety) can wreak havoc on a large dog, particularly when the small dog isn’t at all trained and a 7-year old is holding the leash.

I live on a village green and the kids from the area always come running to Violet and Charles and hug and kiss them. The kids range in age from 4-14 and come in groups of 5-8, see the dogs from a block away, and run at them.

I’ve been walking the dogs separately because Charles tore his groin and isn’t allowed to exercise much. So there I was, with Violet, and the kids come running. One is holding a leash and on the other end is a tiny yorky-ish dog who proceeds to jump all over Violet, which is fine. What ordinarily happens with a small dog is I ask if he’s friendly, and if I get an affirmative (I always do, as the grown-ups usually walk the unfriendly dogs), he jumps at her face, kisses her, all is swell, I chat with the youngins for a bit and move on.

But after "kisses," the little dog goes running in and out of Violet’s legs so quickly that within seconds her legs are tied together. All of the kids panic and scream, the little girl pulls and pulls and my 62-pound dog, begins to shriek and is slammed to the ground like one of those poor calves in a rodeo–by a 7-year old girl. Violet is completely terrified and someone’s gonna get hurt.

I shout at the kids, in a very controlled way, to stand back and calm down (that last part was more like a wish, evidently), and I tell the girl to give me the leash. The little dog is still pulling and Violet is growling and trying to get up. Violet miraculously gets up on her own but her legs are tied together and she’s upset. She snaps at me once as I reach for her legs, but then stands motionless as I untangle her, give the girl the leash and say something I probably shouldn’t have said about what can happen with that kind of leash if everyone isn’t really careful.

Violet has rope burns on her legs from the leash (Greyhounds have unbelievably thin skin and I’m lucky it only got burned) and I feel like the worst doggy mommy in the galaxy.

But it could have been worse and I have officially learned an important lesson. It doesn’t matter what kind of dog or leash you have if the other person is 7-years old, not paying attention, and has an untrained, yippy dog on a retractable leash.

Finally, I know most of you are going to laugh when I call this a victory, but I’ve been writing Oprah Winfrey for years about her obsession with pure breed dogs. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. Why would I write her? Because millions of people care about what she does and says and will change their lives because of her. Lucky for animal people, Oprah has taped a show to air this Friday that features a Lisa Ling puppy Mill investigation and Oprah has had a change of mind regarding her own behavior.

"I would never, ever adopt another pet now without going to a shelter to do it. I am a changed woman after seeing this show," she says.

I think that’s great, although I’m reserving final judgment until after I watch the show as I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be all kinds of disclaimers about allegedly conscientious breeders. I find it hard to believe she’ll come down against breeding in general, but stranger things have happened.

Stay tuned . . .