FAQ traindee® leash expander

The pulling behavior can have various causes. A possible cause is a lack of training in the dog leash management. The dog does not know that he should walk on a leash and therefore pulls. Another cause can be that the dog is trying to control its environment. He wants to move faster or sniff out certain things. Stress due to fear, insecurity, pain, etc. can also be reasons for pulling.

The traindee® leash expander or also jerk absorber for the dog leash, is an expandable element for the effective and gentle reduction of pulling forces of the dog. Developed from dog training, it serves as an animal welfare friendly aid to support dogs pulling strongly on the leash.

The traindee® is therefore also referred to as:
• Training leash
• Educational leash
• Gentle-Leash
• Leash for dogs that pull
• No-Pull dog leash
• Jerk damper for dog leashes

The term “leash expander” is based on the concept of usability together with other dog leashes. However, the traindee® is also very grippy and can therefore be used directly as a leash.

The original traindee® models (black and yellow with interchangeable carabiners in lengths of 0.5m and 1.0m) feature a unique 4-fold stretch. This serves to gently reduce physical forces caused by the dog pulling on the leash and acting on both man and dog together.

Negative effects similar to leash pressure are thus eliminated.
It is precisely this relief that allows humans and dogs to work together without stress.

The traindee® offers numerous application possibilities for:

• dog education, when the dog pulls strongly (dog training).
• hiking with dogs, as a pulling relief when a leash is needed
• dog sports

We assume that your dog is special and not “so simple” and with conventional standard methods for leash guidance training no progress is possible. Maybe your dog is just young and impetuous and you as a dog owner need some support to be able to handle it without stress. There are also simply fundamentally stressed dogs, as is often the case with shelter dogs, in which the leash pulling behavior occurs excessively.

We do not want to create “functioning zombies” that walk stiffly on the leash, well-behaved but with no apparent joy. Even through positive reinforcement with treats, stress and conflict situations can be created!
We will answer some application examples in the next questions:

If your dog already reacts attentively to your language, you can link the phase of slowing down the pull on the leash by the traindee® with a marker word.
In the development phase, we had settled on a long, “soft” “diiiiiiiieeeee”. The idea was to convey something “long”, “soft”, “soothing”. You are not locked into any specific marker word here, of course, and will know best what your dog responds to optimally.
Whenever your dog starts to pull and bring the traindee® to tension and the resistance slowly but noticeably increases, you use your marker word until your dog finally stands. Since the process of pulling apart from the traindee® takes a little while, a long drawn out word over the stretching distance is naturally best.
Repeat this process regularly. Depending on how your dog reacts to the slow deceleration, you may have an optimal association of your marker word with slowing down after a few training sessions.

If you go outside with your dog without the traindee® and he starts pulling again, you can call off the demanded slowing down again via the linked marker word.
This method works with dogs that react to the slowing down in some way, usually a somewhat “dumbfounded” slowing down, because there is no longer an abrupt stop that corresponds to a (very negative linked) leash jerk.

If you have a dog that hangs wildly in the leash “as if in a frenzy”, the attention to a marker word will probably not be present. In this case (for the time being) the method of training via speechless communication is more effective.

If your dog pulls like crazy and can’t seem to be dissuaded by anything and doesn’t react to your language at all, this method may help you the most at the beginning.
Its main purpose is to relieve you as a dog owner of the stress caused by the pulling, which can be very painful in the long run and drain your strength. The result is that you can remain calmer and calmer and unintentionally increase the pulling on the leash. This happens very quickly through your possible reaction (and thus attention) such as swearing or scolding or even a leash jerk.

Simply use the appropriate traindee®, in combination with a leash or without, and go out with your dog at a suitable place. Whenever your dog starts to pull, slow down your walking speed, but don’t make a sound. Remain absolutely calm. By gently slowing down the pulling and thus reducing the forces that act on you and your dog, the stress that inevitably arises on both sides is drastically reduced. Above all, you do not encourage your dog to pull by unconscious reactions!

Your dog will realize that he simply has nothing to gain from starting to pull on the leash. Neither will he get a reaction from you, because you absolutely do not react, nor will he move faster or go anywhere, nor will your dog feel any leash-pulling effects.

This method works best with some dogs and the pulling behavior almost sells itself.

In principle, the stretchable dog leash from traindee® can be combined with all common leashes if the leash expander is primarily used as a dog leash jerk absorber.

One application would be to prevent an abrupt stop and thus again leash jerk when your dog runs off quickly and you press the “stopper button” of the retractable dog leash. This would make sense in principle, because the occurring forces that act with a long run-up and sudden stop on man and dog, can already be enormous.

However, because of the traindee’s up to 4-fold stretchability, we recommend, especially with long trailing leads, to attach the traindee® on the side of the human and not on the dog’s chest harness. This is the only way to have full control over your dog’s range of motion even at 10 or 15 meters. This type of attachment is unfortunately not possible with a flexi or extendable leash.

A more or less rolled out flexi leash, is therefore comparable with a trailing lead. So please keep in mind that if the flexi leash is extended to e.g. 10m, your dog still has an additional margin of up to 2m at the 0.5m traindee.

The traindee® leash expander is not a meaningless “gimmick” that calls itself a jerk absorber and shows just a few centimeters of stretch. Only through the enormous elasticity, the desired, gentle deceleration is achieved. Please use the traindee® therefore also accordingly professional!

If your dog pulls permanently and strongly on the leash, then we would generally recommend to use a chest harness to protect the sensitive neck area of the dog.

Even if the opinion exists that a chest harness generally encourages pulling, your dog already pulls on the collar anyway, which is why the traindee® can be used.

So yes of course, you can! Imagine, your dog runs with full run-up and collar into a rigid leash. Maybe even on a long drag line with a lot of run-up distance. There are already acting on you as a human great forces quite apart from the forces that act here on the neck of your dog!

However, it is much more important that we want to reduce the pulling behavior step by step or use the traindee® specifically in the context of dog training and here an attachment to the chest harness is simply ideal. The resulting forces can then act nice and evenly and thus results in an even better stress reduction.

Our clear recommendation: traindee® + chest harness when your dog pulls on the leash!

No, because the core of the traindee® leash expander (shock absorber for dog leash) is made of high-quality natural latex to give it the exceptionally gentle and shock-absorbing properties.

This natural material is very sensitive to washing in a washing machine and to detergents and cleaning agents. The latex rubber then becomes porous and brittle, loses its elasticity and may even tear in use. Discoloration can also be seen as a result of washing.

Therefore, please clean the traindee® Linen Expander only with a damp cloth or under running, lukewarm water WITHOUT detergents.

If the traindee® leash expander (shock absorber for the dog leash) should ever get wet while hiking, walking or training with your dog, please dry it gently by hanging it at room temperature or simply with a dry cloth.
Please never hang the traindee® leash expander over radiators or other strong heat sources. Under no circumstances, should the jerky expander be dried in a tumble dryer. This will cause the high-quality natural latex material to become brittle and fragile, lose its elasticity and may even tear under load.