Here is a tutorial for a glow-in-the-dark dog leash.

The leash is perfect for keeping man’s best friend safe on nighttime walks.

We have a Cocker Spaniel named Cooper. We adopted him from the humane society back in 2009. He’s sweet, but not the brightest dog we’ve known. We joke that he’s the ditziest blonde in the house! He is so happy go lucky that he doesn’t care what we think.

When my teen was younger, he asked repeatedly if we could get a dog. We always had a reason why we didn’t want to, such as “your sister is too young to bring a pet into the house.”

That excuse lost its merit when she grew beyond the baby stage. So, we decided to make the dog thing work in our favor by offering our son a choice.

Our 10-year-old son had been playing baseball in a local league, but we found watching the games to be difficult. He always volunteered to sit out and when it was his turn to hit, he never took the bat off his shoulders.

When we asked him why he liked to play, he said he liked being in the dugout with friends and the free snack afterward. Each family paid a snack fee at the start of the season, so the kids got to run over to the snack stand after the game and pick out a drink and something to eat.

Game after game we went to watch and cheer on our son, but he never did anything. He frustrated the coach and a few other parents and just made the situation uncomfortable for us.

We asked if he would be interested in not playing, but we’d give him money to go to the snack stand whenever he wanted. He wasn’t interested.

When spring sign-ups came around we asked him if he wanted to play baseball or get a dog. Of course, he picked a dog!

We took a few trips to the humane society to look at dogs. We didn’t do much in the way of research ahead of time.

We were just looking for a nice addition to the family, something not too big but nothing too fragile either.

Finally, we found an adorable buff (blonde), Cocker Spaniel, that they named Nibbles. He was happy and energetic and we decided he was the one.

Our son came up with his new name of Cooper.

Over the years, Cooper has been a great companion. He’s gentle with the kids, yet has a good bark when people come to the door.

Though we estimate that Cooper is around 9 or 10 years old, he still has the energy of a much younger dog.

He runs around in the backyard a lot, but that isn’t enough exercise for him.

We walk him every day.

He absolutely loves those walks and is ready to go rain or shine, hot or cold. He gets excited when we ask him if he wants to go for a walk.

My husband and I even started calling it a “W,” but Cooper soon figured out what it was.

When it’s super cold I am not a fan of these walks, but they have benefited me too. First off, I’m getting exercise. Walking him has forced me into a regular exercise schedule.

It’s nice to take a break from whatever I am doing and get the blood flowing. It also gives my husband and I time to talk, away from the children.

We usually start the evening walk off with a reflection of our days, a look at the schedule to come, and then we talk about whatever we want.

The kids don’t usually go with us, so it gives us a chance to discuss any issues they are having. It’s just a good time for us to catch up and connect, without any distractions. I hate to think of what my health or marriage would be without our walks.

Now that the days are getting shorter, we are walking after dark. We walk through a residential area, so there are no street lights.

A lot of residents have a post light out in their front yard, but we still encounter dark areas. We take steps to make sure we are visible to others when we are out.

One of those ways is a glow in the dark leash that I made for our dog. It was easy to make and helps us to be seen at night.

Glow-in-the-Dark Leash

The directions for this project are at the bottom of this post.

I ended up with about 3 feet of extra rope that I cut off. A little waste, but I would rather have extra then the leash being too short.

I love how this leash turned out! It’s helping to keep us safe and visible at night and our walks are keeping us healthy.