Walking a Dog Can Be Dangerous to Fingers

I have a wonderful Sheepadoodle, Sheila. She weighs 63 pounds. At the age of four, she is still very exuberant and on walks sometimes has a mind of her own wanting to pull to say hello to another dog. One Sunday in June we were on a nice, leisurely afternoon walk around the neighborhood. I bent down to pet a sweet greyhound, Doyle, and Sheila decided to go the other way to sniff a tree. My left hand ring finger was wrapped around the leash, and at that moment two ligaments were pulled. I know my finger wasn’t broken, because I went to urgent care the next day where they cut off my wedding ring. (The finger was much too swollen to pull it off.)

Four months later my index finger was still super swollen and hurt a lot, so I decided to see a hand specialist. He gave me a spring-splint and told me that he sees patients at least twice a week with similar type injuries from people walking their dogs with the leash wrapped around a finger. I was surprised and thought, “I need to warn people.”

What I have learned is a torn ligament never truly heals. But you don’t want scar tissue building up, so it is wise to see a physical therapist who can massage the ligaments and try to straighten out the finger. A person only has about seven or eight months, and then however the finger is, that is how it will be forever (perhaps misshapen and bent).

I applaud people who walk their dogs with discipline, no messing around. Being mindful of the leash and fingers is super important.