Flexi Leads can extend up to 26 feet, which allows dogs to get so far away from their owners and if a situation arises, they have no control and it can quickly turn dangerous.

Walking your dog on the street on a retractable lead will allow it to make unwanted contact with other dogs or people. I have just had this happen to me whilst walking my own dogs, with a not so friendly Labrador who darted into the middle of the road, fortunately there were no cars around. The owner had absolutely no control over him, and she also had two young children with her, one walking a smaller dog, who also became aggressive.

It is far easier to get control of your dog on a standard 4 - 6 foot lead than it is on the end of a 20 foot piece of string.

Owners have got tangled up in the cords of retractable leads, and when they grab the reel it results in burns, cuts and even amputation. At worst, if you have a large dog, it can pull you off your feet and keep going, resulting in bruises, road rash, possile broken bones and sometimes much worse. See more here

Dogs have been known to have terrible injuries as a result of the sudden jerk on their neck when they reach the end of a retractable lead, giving them neck wounds, lacerated tracheas and injuries to the spine.

The handles of a Flexi lead are often bulky and rarely do they have a wrist strap and can easily come out of your hand. Some dogs become frightened by the sound of a lead being dropped on the floor, you then have a runaway dog, with the subject of their fear chasing them. I have seen this happen myself, and fortunately the cord became tangled around a tree, before the dog got to the main road.