Bertie and I are here to show you how to make handling a long line easier. Today she’s got her 30-foot leash on. This leash is made out of the material Biothane, which is waterproof and stink-proof, which is nice for when we’re dragging lines on the ground sometimes. I like these nice locking carabiner connections because Bertie likes to roll a lot, and sometimes her leash might come unclipped that way. Just gives me a little extra sense of security.

I think a lot of folks get real intimidated when I ask them to try using a longer leash. But the important thing to note is that I’m not giving her all 30 feet of the leash the entire time we’re walking. I am reeling it in and out as we’re going along together. So she’s typically not all 30 feet away from me, but if she wants to walk up further, I can give her that room to do so.

Flexi leashes can be appropriate in some circumstances. I’m not hard and fast against them, but typically I prefer this because it’s easier actually for me to reel in. If shes’s, you know, pulling against me I can literally walk up her line like this to get her in closer. Whereas with an adjustable leash- could be pretty hard to get her back in.

The end of the leash, my leash handle, I don’t have it over my wrist like this. I have it on my finger, over my finger, so I can just kind of keep adding to this figure 8 coil and letting it go. If I wanted to keep her shorter and closer to me, I could reel her in to the length I want. And then in this hand [leash anchor hand] I’m going to put on a leash lock grip, which is where the last bit of leash is. I’m going to make a loop. I can put it either over my pointer finger or my thumb, and I can lock it on that way. I just take the end of the leash and fold it over my thumb on top of my bundle [of coiled leash].

Now I’ve got this locked on right here and she has only got, you know, effectively a 5-foot leash. And I can very easily then just let it go and continue letting out the line as she, you know, goes to sniff where she pleases and reeling it in as she pauses and comes back to check in with me.

Lily, a white femme person with long braided red hair, wears a safari hat and hiking clothes as they walk their dog on a trail. Their dog, Bertie, is a medium-to-small sized black pit bull mix, wearing a minimal black/purple harness attached to a 30-foot long, sage colored leash. They walk down a wide trail through some woods in the early spring. The landscape is still primarily brown and scruffy, but the sun is shining. The camera follows behind and beside Lily as they walk Bertie.

Lily talks to the camera, describing how to safely and easily handle a fixed-length long line. They are continuously reeling the leash length in and letting it out according to how far Bertie wanders. They have the trail to themselves and Bertie is following her nose and pausing to sniff, taking advantage of the extra room to roam. She occasionally stops to check in with Lily, at which point Lily usually stops to grab and feed her a treat.

When Lily tells the camera that they like a locking carabiner leash attachment because Bertie likes to roll a lot, the video cuts to a clip of her rolling on her back and wiggling on the side of the trail.

They continue walking along as Lily shows how they coil the leash in a figure 8 pattern (rather than a standard loop, which can cause finger injuries). They keep the leash handle looped over their left open palm (not wrist) and add the extra leash length to that hand with their right hand, in a figure 8 bundle.

Lily then describes how to use a ‘leash lock grip.’ They reel the leash into their desired length, five feet in this example, and then fold the last bit of leash outside their figure 8 bundle over their thumb or pointer finger, before closing their fist around the entire bundle, locking the leash in place at five feet long.