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With that said, I would like to see more people obeying public park signs that specifically state dogs should be on a lead. Put them on one of those extendery ones so if they start bounding towards someone you can stop them. It's really not hard.
Other people have very well behaved dogs that just hang out by the table gnawing on a treat from the pub landlord.
I said maybe.....
We use a 50' horse training leash for ours, which we just leave trailing behind us (coiled up when we're crossing roads, obviously). They're much stronger than retractables for a start, but you also end up with a lot more control and most of the time you don't even have to grip it - just have it sliding through your hands. Our trainer also showed us a great alternative way to use it where you can loop it round the dog's chest to simulate a 3-point harness, thus having even more control over the dog if there's a problem.
We were told by the trust not to use those extendable leads under any circumstance. No control at all and with a dog like ours (greyhound) it could be leathal if he ran and got tangled up in it.
Some of the walkers where I live favour those leads. The problem is when they are pissing about on their phones and the dog is 20' in front they can't react in time - especially at road junctions when the animal turns the corner before its human does. That has happened to us before and it was a particularly nasty black Lab that we met...
I like a short leather lead so I'm in as much control as practical at all times.
I've also used the above loop it round method when walking particularly keen/strong dogs - it really pulls them under control.
The phone thing is another idiocy as far as I'm concerned (yeah, I'm quite judgemental about these things). A friend of mine used to run a large breed rescue, but when we told her we'd got an Akita she said that's the only breed of dog she would never touch. One day she was out with a couple of her dogs in a park, and some woman was poncing about with two Akitas - leads in one hand, phone in the other. The Akitas took exception to my friend's dogs, and dragged the woman 50 yards across the park to attack her dogs, flat on her face; all because she wasn't paying attention to what her dogs were doing, they took her by surprise...and once you're flat on the ground being dragged by dogs, the "keep control of the situation" ship has sailed and there's basically nothing you can do about it until they stop.
Coco did the same to my daughter (because daughters don't listen and always know better than their parents), but just because she wanted to run rather than attack. She was on the phone too, and got dragged through sheep shit for a good 30 yards. As an aside, that was an excellent teachable moment.
On a funnier note, our Coco always has a point during walks where she decides that there's plenty of space, so she's going to bunny around us for 5 minutes. When this happens, all of her brains leak out of her ears and she spins, runs, spins some more, jumps a load, spins some more, runs....and inevitably ends up on the floor with her legs tied together AT-AT style, looking at us pitifully...."How the hell did that happen, human, and why on earth didn't you stop it?".