Two leashes versus coupler

[F, Calla & Luca]

i am wondering about opinions if it is easier to walk two dogs on separate leashes or with a coupler? I did read an interesting discussion on another site about coupling a younger dog to an adult to help the younger dog to learn to walk on a leash but that is not a problem for me. Thanks for any ideas.

[Stella]

We have an 18 month LD and a 6 month LD, I walk them both on separate leashes, but usually in the same hand. I find that having a separate leash on each allows me to make separate corrections when needed. If the puppy is being really difficult then I will walk with one on each side with a leash in each hand. But most times they do really well walking next to each other.

[Nina Vantschip]

I use both. The coupler works quite well, as I like my dogs to walk on my left side. You can still correct them, although when I go on "training" walks, I use separate leashes.

[Susan, Zeke. Lily & Jasper]

My doodles are the same age and size so I use a coupler when walking them by myself. This works pretty well most of the time. Zeke wants to be out ahead of Lily if he is on the outside so I make them alternate position. Lily is a little skittish of passing cars and bicycles so she does better on the inside. Switching them out seems to help them behave better.

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

I had a tough time walking both of ours on a coupler. If they saw a squirrel they would both pull towards it and that's 110 lbs of doodle!!

I can walk them both with no trouble on 2 separate leashes (and both doodles wear a gentle leader).

Both of our doodles are younger so maybe if you have 1 young and 1 older dog the coupler would work better. Good luck :)

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

I have tried both, If we are walking for them to just get a walk and I'm not worried about them pottying, than I will use a coupler. Honey will still try and play with Hannah walking at times and goes underneath her, but most of the time they are good on it. When we are walking and they need to potty, they either go out at seperate times, or both on seperate leashes. This gives them both their time and space.

[Adina P]

I'm not a big fan of the coupler because my walks ALWAYS include a couple potty stops (anything to get Rosco to empty after dinner so I don't have to let him out 10x while trying to watch tv at night) and trying to stop for potty with two big dogs on a coupler is not an easy task!

[1xar0x2rcx0li]

We much much prefer two leashes to one with a splitter. With a splitter they end up pulling on each other which unlearns their leash manners and they think pulling is ok, and it is the only way to get where they want, to pull the other one over there. It was terrible for us, but with two leashes you can control each individually and if one gets out of line and a little pully, they dont corrupt the other, and you can give a subtle correction and they fall into line.

[Cami Jacobs]

http://www.thedogbowl.com/store/PPF/Parameters/943_68/more_info.asp

The double coupler or splitter didn’t work for me but this does. It allows me to adjust the length. I can allow one more leash to walk behind the other and lengthen them when we stop for potty breaks. That way they have enough room and don’t end up peeing on each other. I have two males that don’t usually look before hiking. I can also correct one or the other since the individual leads come almost all the way to the end of the leash. They have no problem with heeling using this allowing the sidewalk is wide enough.

However, I will say that it wasn’t fun or easy to use this until they were good at walking on an individual leash. Using this with a puppy and an adult was a mess! I also think they need to be around the same speed and can’t be obsessive markers. I have three dogs so this was a necessity. Holding three leashes for me was much harder to manage. I can’t get a three way leash though because one of mine is a slow poke and always walk’s behind. Way behind.