By the numbers
Fifteen to thirty feet is the working range for a long line in recall training. Six feet is the entire legal leash length the moment a dog steps off private property anywhere in Maricopa County, Scottsdale included. Biothane holds up better than nylon in Cave Creek heat and sand, the line clips to a harness and stays slack, and the real thirty-foot reps happen on private ground, not in a public wash.
On this page
Six feet. That is the entire legal leash length in Maricopa County the moment a dog steps off its owner's property, including every wash, trailhead, and neighborhood park in Scottsdale and Cave Creek. A thirty-foot biothane long line is good recall equipment. Run loose in most of the public land around here, it is also a leash-law problem, and it is one almost nothing written about long lines bothers to mention.
Maricopa County Ordinance P-13 defines a dog as "at large" when it is off the owner's property and not under control: control means a leash, chain, rope, or cord of not more than six feet in length. That is countywide, so it covers Scottsdale and Cave Creek the same way it covers Phoenix. The ordinance does carve out an exception for a dog "actively enrolled in obedience training with handler in possession of proper leash," but the text never defines what "proper leash" means for that exception, so nobody should read it as blanket permission to run a thirty-foot line loose through a public wash. Arizona's state rabies-control statute sets the same six-foot cap for a dog off its owner's property, which is consistent, worth knowing, and not a separate fact to track.
Read the full ordinance text at maricopa.gov before you assume your situation is covered. Most owners never look this up, they buy the line, and they find out about the six-foot rule from a ranger or an animal control officer instead of from a website.
Start most dogs around fifteen to twenty feet and graduate to twenty-five or thirty feet once that first stretch is reliable. Major kennel club training guidance lands in the same range: build recall in a quiet, low-distraction space first, then move to a bigger area with more to look at, adding line length gradually rather than jumping straight to thirty feet on day one. The line's job is safety and a physical backstop, not a way to reel a dog in when a cue gets ignored. A dog that gets yanked back on a tight line learns to orient on the tension in its collar, not on the handler calling its name, which defeats the entire purpose of the exercise.
A nervous or easily distracted dog often does better staying at the shorter end of that range longer. A confident dog with a solid "come" indoors can move through the fifteen-to-thirty range faster. Neither timeline is fixed, and neither one changes the six-foot rule the moment either dog steps into a public space without the line coiled up in a hand.
| Length | Material | Best for | Where it is legal to run loose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 to 20 ft | Nylon | Light dogs under 30 lbs, budget starter option | Private, fenced, or supervised space only |
| 15 to 20 ft | Biothane | Building the first stretch of distance with a distractible dog | Private, fenced, or supervised space only |
| 25 to 30 ft | Biothane | Confident recall, once the shorter length is reliable | Private property, fenced acreage, or a supervised session, never a public wash or trailhead |
| 25 to 30 ft | Nylon | Not recommended for dogs over 30 lbs or strong pullers | Private, fenced, or supervised space only |
Biothane wins on durability in desert conditions; nylon is the cheaper starting point for a smaller dog. Nylon absorbs sand, holds odor after a wash gets wet, and can burn bare skin if a strong dog hits the end of the line and it slides through a hand, which is exactly why it is not generally recommended past 30 pounds of dog. Biothane wipes clean, does not degrade in triple-digit sun the way some coatings do, and is far kinder to hands if a line gets snatched. Clip either material to a harness, not a collar, so a sudden hit at the end of thirty feet spreads across the body instead of the neck.
Width matters as much as material. A rough starting point: about a half inch wide for dogs under 30 pounds, three-quarters of an inch for 30 to 70 pounds, and a full inch for anything larger or a strong puller. Partners Dogs does not currently stock a dedicated 15 or 30 foot long line, so this is buying guidance rather than a product pitch. The leashes, slip leads, and training hardware in our shop cover everyday walking and control gear built to the same standards. Our trainers can talk through sizing for whatever long line you end up buying elsewhere.
Private ground is the honest answer: your own yard, a friend's fenced acreage, or a supervised session on private property built for it. Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve is the clearest example of why "just find an open wash" does not work here. The Preserve requires a handheld leash no longer than six feet at all times, off-leash dogs are not permitted at all, and there is no stated long-line exception anywhere in the rule. Drive past Lost Dog Wash Trailhead on a Saturday morning: every dog headed into the trail system, past Sunrise, Ringtail, or Anasazi Trail, is on a six-foot leash. That is six-foot-leash territory in full, not a place to let thirty feet of biothane run out behind a dog chasing a jackrabbit through the wash.
The Preserve's own leash rule is posted at scottsdaleaz.gov, along with a heat warning to leave dogs home above 90 degrees, which matters just as much for long-line sessions as it does for hikes. Cave Creek's own desert washes are worth knowing for what they are: sand, wind noise, quail and jackrabbit scent, javelina passing through at dawn and dusk, the kind of terrain a dog's nose lights up around. That is exactly why a long line without a plan is risky there, not why it is a good place to unclip thirty feet of slack. Our Cave Creek campus grounds, and any private property with the owner's permission, are the places that work: Sonoran terrain and real distractions, supervised, without a six-foot ceiling hanging over every rep.
Gear, sized right
See the leashes, slip leads, and training hardware Partners Dogs trainers use daily, then talk sizing with a trainer before you buy a long line elsewhere.
Keep the line slack and wear a glove on your dominant hand. Never let it wrap around a wrist, ankle, or finger. A taut long line does two things wrong at once: it teaches the dog to pull against pressure instead of responding to a cue, and it puts a hand or leg in the path of a sudden run. Let the line drag loosely on the ground during a session instead of holding it fully coiled. Pick up slack as the dog moves closer, and stop the session the moment the line tangles around a leg, a shrub, or another dog.
No. A long line is a safety net for practicing recall, not a substitute for teaching it. The line lets a dog make a mistake, chase a scent, ignore a cue, without that mistake ending in a bolt across a road or a fifteen-minute chase through a wash. What it will not do is build the underlying skill on its own. Plenty of Partners Dogs families arrive with a perfectly good long line and a dog who still will not come when it counts, because the line was managing the symptom while the actual behavior work never happened. Kim M., Cave Creek, described her nine-month-old Dutch Shepherd before training this way:
"Thus recall was not a sure thing and she would bolt to anything she was more interested in seeing if she felt like it. Bike rides at times were an adrenaline rush on the way to a broken neck. Mine not Koko's."
Kim M., Cave Creek
Laurel D., Cave Creek, described why gear alone was never the whole answer for her hound in open desert conditions:
"The tough part about our breed is that she requires a GPS tracking collar to ever go off leash and with the laws around here, plus desert conditions, it's a good thing."
Laurel D., Cave Creek
Anthea U., Cave Creek, put the before-and-after of an unreliable recall more plainly:
"He would never come when called and refused to listen to my requests. I left him off leash, and every time I called him to come back to me, he came and sat right next to me."
Anthea U., Cave Creek
These accounts come from our stored review record, which sits at 4.8 stars across 2,000+ reviews.
If gear alone were the fix, both of those dogs would have gotten there with a long line and a Saturday morning. If your dog's recall problem runs deeper than distance and distraction, the recall behavior guide covers the training mechanics behind a reliable "come," and Group Classes give a dog ongoing reps and structure once the basics are in place.
Not run loose. Maricopa County Ordinance P-13 caps a leash at six feet the moment a dog is off its owner's property: that covers public parks, trailheads, and washes across the county, Scottsdale and Cave Creek included. A long line has its place for supervised recall reps on private property, not coiled out to thirty feet in a public park.
Fifteen to twenty feet to start, moving up to twenty-five or thirty feet once a dog is reliable at the shorter distance. A nervous or easily distracted dog often benefits from staying at the shorter end longer before adding more line.
Biothane generally holds up better in Arizona heat and sand, wipes clean, and is easier on hands if a dog hits the end of the line hard. Nylon costs less and works fine for smaller, lighter dogs, but it is not generally recommended for dogs over about 30 pounds because of rope-burn risk if it slides through bare hands.
No. The Preserve requires a handheld leash no longer than six feet at all times, off-leash dogs are not permitted at all, and there is no long-line exception in the posted rule. Lost Dog Wash Trailhead and the rest of the Preserve trail system are six-foot-leash territory, not a place for a long line to run loose.
No. A long line is a safety backstop while a dog practices coming when called, not a shortcut around teaching the behavior. Dogs with genuinely unreliable recall need the underlying training, not just more line length.
Beyond the gear
If your dog's "come" still depends on how interesting the wash is that day, ongoing reps and structure fix that faster than more line length.