A slip lead is the one you reach for when there is no time to fasten anything. Out of the car at the vet's, over the head of a dog who has just reversed out of a harness in a car park, handed to you by a rescue with the dog already on the end of it. One piece, no buckle, on in a second, which is the only specification that matters on the day you need it.

This is 8mm rope, soft rather than a tight cotton twist. There is a metal slider on it, which is the piece that stops the loop closing all the way down, and the tabs are hand stitched full grain leather rather than a crimped or moulded finish. It can also be formed into a figure 8 halter, putting a second loop over the muzzle instead of leaving everything on the neck.

• 8mm soft rope, in a slip loop with no buckle
• Metal slider to stop the loop closing fully
• Hand stitched full grain leather tabs
• Can be made into a figure 8 halter
• Hemm and Boo describe the thickness as suiting spaniels
• Two colourways, otherwise identical

On which dog this suits. 8mm is a fine rope and Hemm and Boo name spaniels, which is a size and a temperament rather than just a breed. A dog who hauls puts all of that pull through a narrow band of rope, so this is the wrong lead for a puller and the wrong lead to learn loose-lead walking on. Nothing is published about where the slider stops either, so set it yourself with the dog standing calmly before you rely on it, and treat a slip lead as a walking lead rather than something to tie a dog up with. The rope thickness is also the only dimension Hemm and Boo describe in words to us: the finished length reaches us as a size code on the box and nowhere else.

Who it's for: owners of spaniel-sized dogs who already walk on a loose lead, and anyone who wants a second lead living in the car or hanging by the back door for the times the collar is not already on.