This entry was posted in Dogs Reviews and tagged dog dog care dog products dog reviewer Review on October 11, 2014
Do you watch Dragons Den? Then you might have heard of Doddle for dogs.
It is a great idea, and I am amazed it has not been done before now. It is a dogs collar with a built in retractable lead (leash) on it. This means it is a normal collar when it’s not walkies o’clock and a matching lead and collar set when it is.
Our Freya Woof has been trying out the Doddle for this review and she seems to like it. If I take her Doddle collar off and show it to her she becomes all waggy like should would react to a standard lead.
I like it too, if a postie knocks I can hold her on the Doddles lead rather than standing a bit bent over to hold her collar. I mean who puts a lead on their dog to answer the door. She loves posties and charity chuggers and anyone in a kind of uniform knocking, restraining her is not for the persons safety as they are in no danger at all (except maybe getting hit by a wagging tail), but the black moggie that lives opposite us is in mortal danger.
If the field was clear of other dogs I could release the lead and would pop back into the red bump on the collar. This means when your best friend is free ranging you aren’t stuck carrying their lead.
My youngest Jen wanted in on this review, but he is not strong enough to hold Freya alone. She would pull him down if a cat comes into view. I measured the lead fully extended and it is 90 cm, so a very normal length.
Things I love:
In car convenience. She hops in the boot and you release the lead.
The fact it is an auto retracting lead means it doesn’t wobble and go slack.
It is machine washable. Yes really.
It is easy enough for my children to use. On a less flighty dog Jen could use it by himself.
Things they could improve:
Lead length. I believe 1.5 metres would be a good length for the dog to have a bit more freedom whilst on the lead.
The handle section is not very comfortable as I find the tab gets in my way a little.
The lead ribbon is strong but it is thin, so it feels like I might snap. Having pulled at it really hard I am confident it won’t snap though. The instructions leaflet stated it was fine for dogs almost double Freya’s weight.
That I can’t leave Freya tied up with it. We walk to school most days and Freya is not allowed in the playground so I pop her metal chain lead over a fence spike for 3 minutes a day. This is because she will chew a fabric lead to get back to me.
Interested?
It costs £24 plus £3 UK postage. You can have the Doddle engraved for £9 extra. This allows you two lines of text, but under UK rules you’ll still need a tag with owner information including an address. You can pop a tag on through the eyelet hole just next to the red bump bit, you could use your current pet tags.
Disclosure : we were kindly sent a Doddle for Freya to try out and review. The opinions here are honest, photos are my own.
