You will learn what each part of a lead does to the walk, and which piece gives way first.
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A lead looks like an object with no decisions in it: a length, a colour, a price. Yet every one of its parts changes what the dog understands at the end of your arm.
A short lead draws a corridor. The dog moves in line with your hip, cannot step aside to sniff, and tension becomes the object's normal state.
A long lead makes those detours possible, so the sniffing happens, so the walk actually tires the dog. What it costs you is reaction time, and that is paid for at the kerb.
The trap is hunting for the single length that does both. Two separate leads often cost less than the compromise you end up replacing.
Webbing rarely snaps. What lets go is the closure: a gate whose spring has softened, a pin packed with mud and road salt, a swivel with play in it.
What your hand can check: the gate returns on its own and sits flush, with no step and no catch; the body does not spring open when you twist it; nothing rattles at the joint.
Weight matters the other way too. A heavy closure on a small dog hangs off its neck for the whole walk, and the dog carries it, not you.
A retractable keeps a constant tension by design: the cord pulls back, the dog pushes, the cord pays out. An animal learns what it lives, and what it lives is that pushing gains ground.
The rest is mechanical: a thin cord that burns a hand or a leg when it runs, a brake that has to be hit at the exact moment nobody has a thumb on it, and a distance that becomes unmanageable at a shop door or a crossing.
It has a use: open ground, no traffic and no other dogs, for an animal not yet reliable off lead. On a pavement it builds the very problem it is sold to solve.
The handle is the only part of the kit that is about you. A thin round cord concentrates the whole effort on one band of skin; a wide strap spreads the same force without reducing it.
Wet or muddy, flat webbing slips less than smooth rope. It is a detail right up to the day you have to hold something sudden with one hand.
An elastic section spreads a sharp jerk instead of passing it through in one block. It spares your shoulder and the animal's attachment point when something appears from the side.
It also removes a piece of information: the clean tension you used to feel, which told you where the dog was. That is not a fault, it is a trade, and it is better to know which trade you are making.
Everything that ruins a lead happens near the closure: webbing pivoting on metal, winter salt water, sand, and the knot in a rope lead that always works at the same spot.
A lead stored damp in a car boot over summer ages faster than one used every day. Drying it flat costs nothing, and it is the only upkeep a lead asks for.