My dog Finnigan chewed the strap on his brand new Flexi Retractable Leash and I was so upset with him, it’s his way of punishing the wife and me when we go into the convenience store and he’s tied up to the bicycle rack.When we got the dog and leash back home I decided to try and fix the now broken leash. I went on the Internet and wasn’t able to find anything descriptive enough on; how to repair a retractable leash, so then I started to look at the leash case and realized that there were two Phillips head screws near where the handle meets the case of the mechanism.
I laid the leash case flat on the table with the screws facing up. I started to take the screws out of leash case, and then I took a small flat head screwdriver to pry the two pieces apart while trying not to damage the plastic case. Then gently lifting the pried off part of the case that doesn’t hold the mechanism and set it aside with the two screws.
When the dog chewed the leash the lead went inside the case and unraveled the coil spring. With the case facing you hold it steady and grab the loose end of the lead and pull on the lead to add tension. Now that you have about two feet of lead out, hold the mechanism while preventing the lead wheel assembly from unwinding rewind the extra lead that you pulled out, without releasing the tension.
Now you need to test if there’s enough tension on the coil spring to retract the lead properly before you can put the leash cover back on. When you have tested the tension of the lead place a clothe pin on the part of the lead that you have sticking out of the mechanism so it doesn’t go back inside the case. Then you can place the other half of the case back and secure the two halves together with the two screws.
Now you take the part of the lead that has the fastener cut the lead off with a very sharp blade. Take the fastener and you’re going to sew the fastener to the good part of the lead; yes you just shortened the lead by about two feet no big deal if you have a sixteen-foot lead. With black thread or you can make it the same color as the color of the case; my leash case was red, therefore, I chose red thread and started sewing by hand it took me about 30 minutes to do a good job with a lot of stitches, enough to hold the weight of the dog.
There you have it the retractable leash is now repaired and it didn’t cost me one shiny nickel because the Government made the penny extinct in Canada, therefore, I can no longer make reference to the penny. My dog pulls very hard on his leash sometimes when he sees another dog. Just to let you know the leash and sewing job are still intact. Don't forget the poop bags!
