GB2516025A

GB2516025A - Animal and child safety lead

Info

Publication number: GB2516025A
Application number: GB1312168.6A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jo Anne Elizabeth Summers
Original assignee: TAKE YOUR PET Ltd
Current assignee: TAKE YOUR PET Ltd
Priority date: 2013-07-07
Filing date: 2013-07-07
Publication date: 2015-01-14
Also published as: GB201312168D0

Abstract

An auxiliary animal lead 5 that comprises an elongate section 20, an attachment means 15 for attaching the lead to a main animal lead at a position along the main animal lead using frictional engagement and a looped handle 10. The animal lead may form part of a device that further comprises a main animal lead that can be attached to a collar of an animal. The attachment means may be in the form of a loop. The auxiliary lead can be held by a child whilst an adult retains control of the main lead.

Description

Animal Lead

Background

Leads for animals or pets are in wide use and their use may, in certain public areas, be mandated, in the interest of the public. There is often a problem when young children wish to walk the family dog. It is unsafe to let a young child take sole control of the dog's lead. For example, if the dog sees a cat or decides to run suddenly, this could easily result in the child being injured (if the child tries to hang on to the lead) and/or the dog running loose with its lead trailing (if the child lets go).

Embodiments of the present invention seek to alleviate this problem.

Summary of the Invention

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided an animal lead comprising an elongate section and an attachment means for attaching the lead to another animal lead at a position along the other animal lead using frictional engagement.

By providing an animal lead that can be attached to a standard animal lead an animal can be kept under full control through the standard animal lead, whilst allowing a second person, such as a child, to hold the animal lead of the invention.

This permits the adult to maintain control of the animal, whilst allowing the child to participate in walking the animal. It has a second benefit of permitting the adult to see exactly where the child is and effectively acts as a safety rein for the child. As the attachment means provides frictional engagement with the standard lead it can be attached at any desired position along the length of the standard lead and does not require any loops or catches to be present on the standard animal lead for connection of the animal lead of the invention to the standard animal lead. It will be appreciated that, by attaching the lead of the invention to a standard animal lead in a friction fitted manner the animal lead of the present invention can be fitted at any desired position along the standard animal lead, to allow for different heights of the person using the animal lead of the invention and different heights of the animal.

The attachment means can be configured to form an open area surrounded by parts of the animal lead, so that the other parts of the animal lead encircle the other animal lead when the other animal lead extends through the open area. In this manner an open area of a size suitable to initially allow another animal lead to be loosely encircle can be created. The parts of the lead encircling this open area may later be tightened to create the frictional engagement between the animal lead and the other animal lead.

The attachment means may, for example, be a loop forming means. The loop forming means can be configured to form a tightenable loop with at least a part of a remainder of the animal lead. The loop forming means may in particular be a loop through which a part of the animal lead distal from the loop is or can be fed.

The attachment means can be provided at an end of the elongate section.

The animal lead may further comprise a means for holding the animal lead that is provided at another end of the animal lead opposite to the end of the animal lead at which the attachment means is provided.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided an animal lead comprising an elongate section and an attachment means for attaching the lead to another animal lead at any desired position along the length of the other animal lead.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a device comprising a first animal lead that can be attached to a collar of an animal and a second animal lead frictionally engagingly attached to the first animal lead.

The second animal lead can be any of the above described animal leads.

Detailed Description of Embodiments

The figure shows an animal lead 5 according to an embodiment of the invention. The lead 5 of the embodiment comprises a loop 10 at a first end and a loop 15 at a second end. The (larger) loop 10 at the first end of the lead allows a user, such as a child, to hold the lead. The (smaller) loop 15 at the second end of the lead is for forming a knot for attaching the lead to a standard animal pet lead that may be held by another person, such as an adult. A knots useful for this purpose is known as a ring hitch, cow hitch, a girth hitch or strap hitch but other knots suitable for creating frictional engagement between the loop 15 and another lead may instead be used.

The presence of the ioop 15 allows the lead 5 to be attached to a standard animal/pet lead. This can be done by holding the standard lead to which the lead 5 is to be attached so that it crosses over the loop 15. The loop 10 is then folded over the standard lead and fed through the loop 15 so that the part 20 of the lead 5 that connects loops 10 and 15 encircles the standard lead. Pulling the part 20 of the lead tight around the standard lead forming a cow hitch securely fastens the lead 5 to the standard lead in frictional engagement.

It will be appreciated that, by fastening the lead 5 to a standard lead in the above described manner the lead 5 can be attached to the standard lead at any position along the standard lead, so that the attachment of the lead 5 does not rely on the presence of clasp or other fastening means on the standard lead for attachment thereto.

In the above discussed embodiment the loop 10 is ted through the loop 15 so that the lead 5 can encircle a standard lead for attachment thereto. The same effect can be achieved without feeding the loop 10 through the loop 15 by instead feeding a section of the central part 20 through the loop 15. It will be appreciated that in this manner this part of the central section 20 will pass though the loop 20 twice, forming yet another loop on the side of loop 15 on which loop 10 is not located. It is this additional loop that the standard lead to which the lead 5 is to be attached is fed through. When this loop is tightened the lead 5 attaches to such a standard lead.

Attaching the lead 5 to the standard lead in this alternative fashion is advantageous as it does not require that the loop 10 (or indeed an alternative means allowing a user to hold on to the lead 5 that may be provided on the lead 5 instead of the loop 10) to be sufficiently small to fit through loop 15.

It will be appreciated that the size of the loops shown in the figure are provided by way of example only. Different size loops could be used instead as long as the loop 15 allows attachment to a standard animal lead and/or as long as the loop 10 allows a user to securely hold the lead 5. It will moreover be appreciated that, instead of providing the loop 10 other known means for holding the lead 5 may be provided. For example, the loop 10 could be replaced by a known lead reel as can be found on many animal leads. Although the loops 10 and 15 are shown in the figure as separate loops attached/sewn to the section 20 of the lead 5 it will be appreciated that the loop 10 and/or the ioop 15 can simply be formed from an end of the section 20, folded or turned back on itself and then attached to the section 20 in a suitable fashion, say by stitching/sewing, adhesion, or, if the section 20 is made of a thermoplastic material, by a suitable welding process, such as friction or ultrasound welding. Other suitable attachment techniques can also/instead be used.

The dimensions shown in the figure are illustrative in nature only and loop dimensions and lead length other than those shown in the figure may be used instead.

Embodiments of the present invention are described in the above by way of example only. The present invention is not limited to these examples and is defined by the appending claims.

Claims

Claims: 1. An animal lead comprising an elongate section and an attachment means for attaching the lead to another animal lead at a position along the other animal lead using frictional engagement.
2. An animal lead according to Claim 1, wherein the attachment means is configured to form an open area surrounded by parts of the animal lead, so that the other parts of the animal lead encircle the other animal lead when the other animal lead extends through the open area.
3. An animal lead according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the attachment means is a loop forming means.
4. An animal lead according to Claim 3, wherein the loop forming means is configured to form a tightenable loop with at least a part of a remainder of the animal lead.
5. An animal lead according to Claim 3 or 4, wherein the loop forming means is a loop through which a part of the animal lead distal from the loop is or can be fed.
6. An animal lead according to any preceding claim, wherein the attachment means is provided at an end of the elongate section.
7. An animal lead according to Claim 6, further comprising a means for holding the animal lead provided at another end of the animal lead opposite to the end of the animal lead at which the attachment means is provided.
8. An animal lead comprising an elongate section and an attachment means for attaching the lead to another animal lead at any desired position along the length of the other animal lead.
9. A device comprising a first animal lead that can be attached to a collar of an animal and a second animal lead frictionally engagingly attached to the first animal lead, the second animal lead according to any of the preceding claims.