I went out for an armload of firewood and passed him lying contentedly in the snow. Looked out the door maybe twenty minutes later and saw his cable clip lying right in the same place – without the dog.
Oh, bother. It was about eleven in the morning and had just begun snowing again. Neither LB nor Ghost were anywhere in sight, nor did either come when I called. This came as no surprise at all.
One of the problems with letting Little Bear loose is not just that he’s completely irresponsible. The bigger problem is that he seems to be an irresponsibility magnet – other dogs around, normally perfectly well-behaved, take his actions as license and join in the fun. Ghost is not immune to this. So for all I knew, both dogs were miles away by now.
Actually they weren’t far at all, even though they were loath to come at my call. I found them not far from the Lair, wet and tired and happy to get a Jeep ride out of the deal. I didn’t make a big deal of it because it’s not as though LB deliberately disconnected himself from the cable. What’s he supposed to do, knock on the door and announce, “Daddy, my cable came loose?” No.
It has happened before, but not with this particular clip…
Yes, I know this wouldn’t happen if I just used the quick link. I use the clip partly for convenience, but mostly for the swivel. LB can do amazing things to a cable without the swivel. But if this one’s going to start unhooking itself like the last one did, I guess I’ll have to live with the world of amazing things.
There are better things available for the job.
A clash hook maybe? I haven’t seen one of those intended for use with rope though.
There are many varieties of carabiners. Maybe a key-lock or twist-lock carabiner would replace both of those things. Well, then the swivel part wouldn’t be there.
A harness clip has the advantage of the gate fitting into a slot, so there’s less chance of a rope slipping out.
Possibly, an eye-bail trigger snap?
Jeepers, once you start looking around, there’s a lot of types of shackles, snaps, clips, etc. You can get the swivel as a separate item, and then use whatever clasp thing works for the leash or collar.
Offhand I would say go to a double eye swivel with two quick links, and scrap the clip. Alternatively, you could try a smaller dog. Yes, I recognize that the clip is a whole lot handier than a quick link. Particularly in freezing weather.