A slip lead is the lead you can put on a dog you have never met, which is why there is one hanging by the door of every vet's reception and every rescue kennel in the country. It needs no collar, no clip and no cooperation. It goes over the head and it is on.

This one is a tight nylon weave over a rope core, with a leather-effect finish where the joint is made and a keeper — the sliding piece that stops the loop opening up again once it is over the dog's head. It measures 150cm by 1.2cm and Ancol rate it to a maximum weight of 50kg. The weave is weatherproof and wipes clean, which is the practical difference between a rope lead and a webbing one after a wet field, and it stays flexible rather than going board-stiff. Ancol also say it may be used as a head collar.

• 150cm long, 1.2cm thick
• Maximum weight 50kg
• Tight nylon weave with a leather-effect joint finish
• Keeper to secure the loop
• Weatherproof, wipes clean and stays flexible
• Supplied on widely recycled packaging

On what a slip lead does when a dog pulls. It tightens, and it does not stop tightening on its own — the keeper is the only thing that limits it, and it only limits it where you set it before you set off. That makes it a handling lead rather than a lead to tie a dog up with or leave one unattended on, and it makes it the wrong choice for a dog that throws itself into a collar or has any airway trouble; a flat-faced breed on a slip lead is asking for a problem. Ancol mention head-collar use but publish no fitting instructions for it to us, which is not something to be working out on a busy pavement.

Who it's for: anyone who needs a lead that goes on fast — a walker handling several dogs, someone fostering, a household with an escape artist that has learned to reverse out of a collar.