Patent ID: 9510565
Filing Date: 2016-12-06
CPC Classification: A01K

Claim Text:
1. In a coupler for simultaneously tethering, with a single leash, first and second dogs, each of which is wearing a dog collar or harness to which an individual leash holder is attached, means for regulating spacing between the two dogs' relative positions when the dogs walk or, alternately, run side by side headed in the same direction, the regulating means including: a pair of fastening devices; and an elongated tube fabricated from semi-rigid, resilient plastic tubing, the elongated tube, in assembled relation with the fastening devices, defining a pair of barbs, each of which is disposed, concentrically with the tube's longitudinal centerline, at one of the tube's distal ends, the elongated tube defining a hollow midsection pre-formed in the shape of a shallow arch which extends the full length of the tube between the pair of barbs; wherein the elongated tube is free of any protruding members separating said length; wherein each of the tube's distal ends is permanently fitted with one of the fastening devices and each such device includes a pivotally mounted clip which protrudes longitudinally from the distal end to which the device is so fitted, with the orientation of the clip's rotational axis being fixed with respect to the tube's longitudinal centerline at said distal end; wherein both of the clips are removably fastenable to the leash holders; wherein the span of the elongated tube and the two fastening devices, in assembled relation, is long enough that when, as the two dogs stand side by side headed in the same direction, the leash holder attached to the collar or harness worn by the first dog is held on a side of its body which faces away from the second dog's body, and the leash holder attached to the collar or harness worn by the second dog is held on the side of its body which faces toward the first dog's body, one of the clips can be directly fastened to the first dog's leash holder at the same time the other clip is so fastened to the second dog's leash holder by positioning the tube's midsection so that it extends, generally perpendicularly to the direction in which the dogs are headed, across a narrow space separating the side-by-side dogs and under the first dog's muzzle; wherein said regulating means stabilizes the spacing between the two dogs' relative positions at its optimum breadth, provided the tube's midsection, at such a moment, assumes a relaxed state in which the tube is generally free of any type of spring force, the relaxed state being one in which the midsection's radius of curvature approximates that of the shallow arch in the shape of which the midsection was pre-formed, with the midsection's radius of curvature otherwise varying, with the direction and extent, of sideways movement by one or both dogs, as such sideways movement causes said spacing to deviate from the optimum breadth and, in so doing, gives rise to an instantaneous stiff, springy reaction from the elongated tube, which then exerts a spring force, through the tube's distal ends, on said sides of the dogs' bodies; and wherein said optimum breadth occurs whenever the narrow space is just wide enough to keep the two dogs from tripping on each other as they walk or run side by side together, thereby stringing the dogs' collars or harnesses in series from the single leash when it, too, is fastened to the first dog's leash holder.