If an older person walks a dog, hold the leash in the palm of the hand and don't wrap it around the hand, keep the leash short, and first train the dog not to lunge forward on the leash

Cost

Holding the leash in the palm and shortening it cost nothing: walk with the older person once and show them. Training a dog not to lunge takes time, either teaching it yourself or hiring a dog trainer, which costs money, and prices vary a lot by place. The hard part is that the older person is used to a retractable leash and to wrapping the leash around the wrist, and has to change.

What you get

U.S. emergency-department surveillance data, scaled up to the national level, put fractures among people aged 65 and over who fell while walking a dog on a leash at about 1,671 people in 2004 and about 4,396 in 2017, a statistically significant rise. Of the people with fractures, 78.6% were women and 28.7% were hospitalized. By single site, the hip was most common, at 17.3%. By broad category, the upper limb was most common, at 52.1%. In another set of national U.S. emergency-department data (2001 to 2018), leash-related injuries were estimated at about 360,000 (36万) visits (exact value 356,746). Of these, 193,483 visits were from being pulled by the dog, and 136,767 were from being tripped or caught in the leash. Injuries per million people rose from 25.4 to 105.5. A hand-surgery clinic saw 443 patients with hand injuries from dog leashes over 5 years. About three-quarters were injuries to the hand or fingers when the leash wrapped around them and the dog yanked (the abstract says 337 people, 75.9%). About a fifth needed surgery (96 people, 21.6%). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted about 86,629 visits a year for fall injuries linked to cats and dogs from 2001 to 2006, and 88.0% involved dogs. Of the falls linked to dogs, 26% happened while walking the dog, and 21.2% were from being pushed or pulled down by the dog.

Notes

Holding the leash in the palm and not wrapping it around the hand is advice from the doctors at that hand-surgery clinic. They state that this protects the fingers and wrist, and does not prevent being pulled down when the dog lunges. They also advise shortening the leash: with a short leash the dog cannot build up speed, so the pull is lighter, while a long leash can also catch on things and trip the person. A retractable leash let out is a long leash. But no study specifically compared whether retractable or ordinary leashes cause more falls, and a 2024 review states there is no data on what kind of leash was in use at the time of injury. Training the dog not to lunge on the leash was raised by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by the authors of the fracture paper. The fracture paper also advises older people who are thinking about getting a dog to choose a smaller one. No study has worked out how many falls these measures prevent, so the size of the benefit is set at small by judgment. Whether bones can withstand a fall is covered in §1.39 (bone density test) and §1.40 (take medicine if osteoporosis is found). For practicing balance day to day, see §1.13 (balance and leg strength). For whether dog walking counts as exercise, see §2.44 (count dog walking toward your walking). The beneficiaries are mainly your parents and grandparents.

Evidence grade

B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.

Sources

1. Pirruccio K, Yoon YM, Ahn J (2019). Fractures in Elderly Americans Associated With Walking Leashed Dogs. JAMA Surgery, 154(5), 458-459. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2019.0061
2. Forrester MB (2020). Dog leash-related injuries treated at emergency departments. American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 38(9), 1782-1786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2020.05.082
3. Plusch K, Givner D, Wiafe B, Lutsky K, Beredjiklian P (2026). Hand and Wrist Dog-Leash Injuries in the Outpatient Setting: A Review of 443 Cases. Hand, 21(4), 582-586. https://doi.org/10.1177/15589447241299128
4. CDC (2009). Nonfatal fall-related injuries associated with dogs and cats — United States, 2001-2006. MMWR, 58(11), 277-281. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5811a1.htm
5. Rosa R, Buckley RE (2024). Leash-related injuries associated with dog walking: an understudied risk for dog owners? Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 262(7), 973-978. https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.23.11.0608

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 17, tip 10. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer