How safe do you feel when dog walking alone?

Normally I never really get phased by much when walking Monty alone but an incident on the canal really threw me today.

I decided i'd park at the basin and then walk an hour in one direction turn round and walk an hour back. The canal was busy with walkers, other dog walkers and cyclists and all in all was a nice day out.

Anyway I got 45 minutes in to the walk and out of the town part towards to next village along and there were fewer people around. Up ahead was a young lad sat on a BMX bike with his hood up seemingly chatting to someone on a handsfree or something. I walked past him and smiled as i walked past and he was staring at me so immediately felt a bit nervy. I also had my camera over my shoulders which is worth quite a bit of money and i knew he'd noticed this.

I walked on for another 5 minutes and decided that i felt quite uneasy and i'd rather walk back towards the basin where I know there's more people around so i turned round.

I walked back past this lad and could see other people up ahead so picked the pace up a bit. Turned round and he was now following behind about 20 metres away at a very slow pace. I kept up my pace and just checked behind me every now and again and he was always still there just slowly cycling behind.

I'm fairly sure that he was following me maybe with the hope of getting a quiet stretch with no other walkers to steal my camera or something. Fortunately the opportunity never came and i eventually stopped to chat with another dog owner and he cycled past.

As i said i'm not normally phased but I've never felt so nervous when walking before and was so grateful when I saw someone coming towards me along the towpath.

I reported it to the local police station when I got home as there have been a couple of attacks in our local area recently and i'd feel awful if someone got attacked and i'd said nothing.

It really got me thinking though about just how safe we are when walking alone with our dogs. This was in the middle of the day in a popular area.

Poor you - that can't have been nice

I never really think about it to be honest - I walk in fairly busy places - but always try to steer clear of people.

Mind you.....I'm not sure anyone would brave coming near my lunatics if they saw me out walking....most people run a mile!

Aww that's horrible, I'm glad you're okay and nothing came of it.

Tbh, I know Rosa would be useless, she's too big a softie to protect me. She'd roll over to have her belly tickled!

*hugs* I bet that was unnerving.
I never carry anything precious on a dog walk if I'm alone.

I feel reasonably safe where we live now. There are fewer people, but we know them all and they are all friendly and stop for a chat when dog walking.
Where I used to live there were tons of people around - they'd all turn a blind eye when there was trouble. Happened to both me and hubs independently when we were surrounded by gangs.
So, numbers are no guarantee

I'd like to think Monty would be a deterrent to people but he was off lead so not always by my side. I wanted to get him back on lead so he was there with me but doing that would've ment stopping and i felt it was safer to keep walking.

I think Monty would probably do the same. I don't know how he'd react but i like to think he'd protect me.

It's a shame that it seems to be this way these days, people are too scared to get involved because of repercusions.

I have had times in my life like that but thankfully few and far between. But I can really remember the awful, vulnerable feeling so I understand how you probably felt.

Yes there is a risk to walking alone, but one I decided years ago I thought was worth taking. I don't think my dogs would protect me, but then other people are not to know that.

Mind you these days the risk in me being a sexual target are pretty slim and as I'm always so scruffy when I dog walk, I think it unlikely that anyone would think I had anything worth mugging me for.

I must admit, I walk alone in remote areas quite often, sometimes at dawn/dusk...

Mind you, I take our smaller, older camera, just in case.

Saying that, since my boys won't let anyone come within about 10ft of me without all hell breaking loose, I don't feel that unsafe.

Anyone that decided attacking someone with 10 stone of barking, growling, foam covered Boxers with their hackles up, needs to have their head examined...

I don't think i'd ever let it put me off walking Monty as obviously that's not an option! I never normally walk with valuables but for some reason today I decided to take most with me!

There was a lot of foam round Monty's chops which would certainly put me off approaching him or messing with him!

I'd like to think he would protect me as he always jumps up at Rich if he gives me a hug so he obviously feels like he has to look after me to a certain degree!

Oddly - I never think twice about taking the camera (which is worth a fair amount)....and (although I am better now I have the new Van) I never used to lock it.......mind you no-one could start the old one but me!

I am (more often then not) wlking multpile big dogs - and Gabe looks very intimidating if you don't know him!

Depends on which dog I have with me! my Lab can do a 'big boy bark' on command quite menacingly (proper police dog, back off, up on the hind legs bark!) so I do feel very safe with him. Bo my Slovak would likely run and a 3kg Yorkie isn't much of a deterrent surprisingly enough.

I don't feel unsafe during the day, and I also do a lot of night walking at this time of the year. Again, I feel safe when my Lab is with me. I don't necessarily feel as safe when I don't have him with me. But not to the point where it genuinely worries.