DIY Dog Leashes

Do It Yourself Dog Leash 

    We do make our own dog leashes.  There are a number of reasons.  We can choose the color of the leash we want. We can make the length of the leash any size to fit our many training and working situations. We can customize the handle and type of hasp we use to connect to our dogs collars.

    Making a leash does not take any particular skill.   On a scale of 1-10 in terms of difficulty I would give it a 2. 


Time to complete: 30 Minutes

Materials needed:

1/2" polypropylene rope in your desired color ( Menards/Home Depot etc.)
Swivel hasp to attach to the dogs collar 
Electrical tape
Heat shrink tubing 1-1/8" (electrical aisle) 6" long
Kitchen stove top burner / heat gun
Scissors
Tape Measure

1.) Cut the rope to your desired length. 

2.) Remove the shrink tubing and cut it in half

2.a.) Your rope ends will look like this.

3.) Slide one piece of the tube over the end of the rope.

4.) Turn on your exhaust fan above your stove.
Take each end of the rope and hold it over your oven burner
until it starts to melt and catches a small flame.

5.) The melted ends should look like this. It will stop your
rope from fraying at the ends. Let them cool for a couple minutes.
If you touch them you will get melted polypropylene on your hand
and it will not come off until it cools. OUCH!

6.) We use these swivel hasps. They are cheap and durable.

7.) Slip your hasp onto the rope and leave about
4 inches exposed to secure it in place.

8.) Using electrical tape, tightly wind it around both
strands of rope to secure the hasp in place.

9.) Wrap the tape around tightly about 3 times
It should be just short of the length of shrink
tubing that is on your rope.

10) Slide the Shrink tube up the rope to cover the
electrical tape up. 

11.)  Hold the shrink tubing above your burner about 6-8 inches.
If your fingers are too hot you are too close. The tubing needs
just a little heat to shrink. Rotate it every 15 seconds until
it is very tightly shrunk to the rope.
This should take only 1- 1.5 minutes 

12.) The finished heat shrunk end should look like this.
The tube, tape and rope will shrink together and should
ooze some clear glue like material. Just don't touch it!
It is hot stuff!



Now let's do the handle end

13.) Slide your other half of the shrink tube over the unfinished end.

14.) Make a loop that you feel comfortable with using.
It could be any size. Use the electrical tape to temporarily
test different handle sizes.

15.) Tape your handle up the same way as we did the
hasp end. Make sure it is a bit smaller than the piece of
shrink tubing you are using.

16.)  Slide the Shrink tubing up to the handle and cover the
electrical tape.  Then proceed to the burner as we did above
and shrink the tubing using the heat from the burner.
Again, let it cool and do not touch the shrink tube!

17.)  You now have a completed, customized dog leash!



Now you can take your dog for a walk and when someone asks "Hey where did you get that nice leash ?"
You can brag and say I did it myself!


COSMO AND SPARKY SAY "ENJOY YOUR LEASH BY
TAKING YOUR DOG FOR A WALK!"