Welcome to our 4-part Buyers Guide on Retractable Leashes.  This is our final article and is on the Variable Brake Retractable Leash, the ALPHA Leash.

After reviewing and testing all the other retractable dog leash designs available a single issue has come up again and again.  That issue is the inability for a retractable leash to safely handle your dog running away from you. This is where the variable brake retractable leash comes in.

Welcome to our 4-part Buyers Guide on Retractable Leashes.  This is Part 3 and is on the Dial-a-Distance Retractable Leash. 

Another interesting variation on the standard retractable leash, the Dial-a-Distance retractable leash by Thunderworks, allows you to set the length of your leash using a dial on the leash cases side.  Depending on whether you are in a crowded area and need a leash that’s only 5 feet long or you are on an outdoor hike and your dog can roam it’s full 16 feet or anywhere in between simply turning the dial to the desired length makes the leash stop at that set length.  And there is also a stop button, just like with a base retractable leash.

Welcome to our 4-part Buyers Guide on Retractable Leashes.  This is Part 2 and is on the automatic brake Retractable Leash. 

Launched by Fida this interesting addition to the base retractable leash incorporates an automatic slip clutch.  This addition means that as soon as your dog starts to run away from you the leash tape suddenly becomes a lot harder to pull.  At first this sounds like an improvement to the base retractable leash, one that helps solve the major draw back of standard retractable leashes, the stop button and the dangerous jerk stops it causes.  However, in practice we’ve found that this isn’t the case.

Welcome to our 5 part Buyers Guide on Retractable Leashes.  This is part 1 and is on the base retractable leash, the one that started it all.

Invented back in the early 70s by a German engineer, Manfred Bogdahn. His invention is still being sold by his company Flexi to this day.  This base retractable leash is simple and has the amazing benefit of giving your dog the freedom to explore the world around them and not dragging you along with them.

We’ve been really hard at working assembling leashes, marketing and now you can find the ALPHA Leash in our first store!

Keep an eye out for our launch and teaser videos on our Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channels. Just in case you’re not psyched up enough already to get your new ALPHA Leash! 😝

PS: Don’t forget to share our posts.

We are hard at working updating the ALPHA Leash website with our new online store … we will have all the initial launch models and colours available…and we will be able to ship Worldwide!

Mass production here we come! I can’t believe it’s already been almost 3 months since we got funded! Time fly’s when you are busy! 😃

…now we have a product that is fully developed and it’s time to really spread the word about this amazing new leash. 😊

One of the key enablers for the Alpha Leash’s future success, is crowd funding. But what is it, how exactly does it work and why is it so important? Let’s find out!

Because consumer and pet safety are the most important parts of the Alpha Leash’s design, I was very concerned with this opinion and its accuracy. So, I went looking for the truth.

We were then ready to take our testing to the next level. Getting our prototype leashes into the hands of real life dogs.. and people. Beta testing….

With the prototype design complete we are now printing, fabricating and assembling leashes.

We need a total of 11 for our Demo Days, Cycle Testing, Static Testing and to go out to our lucky Beta testers.

But the design has to be perfect, and after assembling several 3D printed Alpha Leashes, the brake lock button is not operating as smoothly as I would like, so back to the drawing board…

I left the best for last on this update! :-D

The casing and brake lock mechanism can now safely handle over 100 lbs of pulling force!

Now the next steps in the Alpha Leash’s development are to get the parts that make up the leash quoted out. How much will tooling cost?, how much will each part cost?, what design changes…

Testing of the Alpha Leash is paramount to ensuring that we deliver a high-quality product. To this end we have designed, built and are now using a test rig…

With some initial testing complete there are several key design areas regarding the brake system that need to be improved.

The test rig parts all arrived over the last 2 weeks and the rig’s assembly went quiet smoothly.