Best Practices

Transferring to the Lead-All comes with an adjustment period for you and your dogs. After a few walks, everyone will become familiar with the feel of being pack-attached, and if used with care and attention the Lead-All will become a dog-walking tool you can't work without. Here are a handful of tips to keep you and your pack strolling. Please pay special attention to the safety notes set in bold.

WALKING

1. Most importantly, keep the central ring lifted slightly above the height of the dogs' backs. This allows the dogs to move under the ring and under each other's leashes, which reduces tangles. Keep the ring up with ease by using a short lead or hold a longer lead taut between you and your pack to lift it into the air. Here are our available leads.

2. Sometimes it takes just one over-excited puppy to dismantle the harmony, so remove dogs from the ring that are causing problems for the pack. These dogs can be isolated on a second leash or with some of the options built into our leads such as the Leader and Trek. Reintegrate dogs into the pack once they have calmed down.

3. Take your time to stop and re-adjust the leashes on the ring. Its best to choose a different colour for each of your leashes (as we have prepared in the Colour Combos), so you can quickly identify which dog is attached to which leash. For the leash that is creating a tangle, unclip it from the ring and pull on it from BELOW the tangle until it is free. Reclip it to the ring. Here's a quick demo on that.

If you have four or fewer leashes on the central ring, sometimes you can simply unclip your main lead and shake any tangles out in a few seconds, as shown here.

4. Want to take it slow? Ease into the system by gradually increasing the number of dogs you have on the ring. Start with two or three dogs that have good walking habits. Once you feel comfortable with these dogs, add another and so on.

5. If you are using our adjustable leashes, start with all the leashes adjusted to the shortest length. Add more length as necessary.

IT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW, if you let leashes tangle, there is a risk of one of the leashes wrapping around the clip and holding the gate open, which means the leash can come free from the ring. If you have a dog that is a flight risk, please keep that dog on a separate leash until you have a good grasp of how the system works. 

LOADING DOGS ONTO THE SYSTEM FROM YOUR VEHICLE

1. Stop the shoulder strain of getting dogs out of your vehicle by first attaching the handle-end of your lead to your car. There is a metal latch inside every door frame where you can fix your lead -- put a carabiner on the handle of your lead (shown here in the first few seconds) or use one of our TinyHorse leads with a clip built into the handle. Once your lead is secure you have two free hands to begin adding dogs onto the central ring.

2.  When removing dogs from your vehicle, do so one at a time. Clip one end of a Lead-All leash to the dog, guide the dog out of your vehicle then place it onto the ring. This will allow you to have a sense of where each dog will walk naturally in the pack.

PLEASE DO NOT leave Lead-All leashes hanging loose from the dogs in the car (one end clipped to the dog, the other end hanging down). If the clip on the loose end of the leash is facing upwards and a dog steps onto it, it may snap onto their paw. Keep paws safe by either using your lead as a pick-up/drop off tool and leave the dogs without a leash in the back OR clip both ends of the Lead-All leash to the dogs so they are wearing them like a collar or across their harness like a sash. Our lead, The Leader, as a wonderful pick-up/drop-off leash built into it so you're always ready to handle dogs coming in and out of your vehicle!

SOME NOTES ON LEASH CARE

1. Don't walk more than 6 dogs on one ring. It's okay to add more in a pinch, but chronically overloading your ring will lead to premature wear and tear of your leashes. If you walk more than 6 dogs on average, consider purchasing a second ring to split your packs or buy one of our double-ended leads.

2. Over time, the swivel function of your leashes will wear out from friction. Keep an eye on the metal nub that holds the piece that swivels in place. When the nub is almost able to slip through the hole, its time to replace your leash. You can get many years out of your clips by periodically cleaning them to remove the dirt that increases friction and lightly oil this area to improve the mechanism's movement.

3. Watch our video on the care and maintenance of your Lead-All leashes!

These are basic best practices. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more tips!