Three metres keeps a dog inside the radius where you can still reach them, which suits pavements, parks with paths and dogs you are still training. Five gives real casting-about room on a beach or an empty field, and correspondingly less time to react. Buy the shorter one unless you specifically walk somewhere open.

The reel is spring-loaded and takes up slack on its own, so the line stays off the ground as your dog circles back rather than tangling round your ankles the way a long training line does. The brake is a single thumb button on top of the handle: press to stop the line paying out, and lock it to hold a fixed length while you pass someone. The grip is contoured rather than a plain bar, which is worth having when the whole system depends on you not dropping it.

• Choice of 3m or 5m line
• Ten colour options including black, pink, orange, green and sky blue
• Auto-retracting reel keeps slack off the ground
• One-button thumb brake with lock
• Contoured grip for longer walks

Be honest about retractables. Clip one to a harness, never a collar, on any dog who lunges: at full extension the stop is sudden and all of it lands on the neck. The thin line can burn a hand or a leg it wraps around, so keep it locked short around people and other dogs. And a retractable is not a training tool, because a lead that gives more line when a dog pulls teaches exactly the thing you are trying to stop. Use it for freedom on open ground, and a fixed lead for everything else.

What the options mean. Sold in sizes from 3M to 5M — £8.99 to £9.99.

Who it's for: Owners of a dog who already walks nicely, choosing between a shorter lead for town and a longer one for open country.