Do you carry a personal alarm whilst walking?

I live in a "nice" part of London and was walking Jake the other evening, a gang of 15 youths were congregated at the enterance to a park. Jake and I walked in and one of the youths kept shouting really agressiveley and swore: get off my f**king pitch or I'll kill your dog. Well when someone threatens Jake the lioness in me takes over I told him I was calling the police. I also got a video of them on my phone. I followed them down the road and asked the ringleader for an apology otherwise I would take action against him. He apologised in the end!!!! I know you shouldn't take on gangs however they are starting to rule our streets and as some parents out there are not doing their jobs right us poor citizens who have to put up with them must stand up to them.

This is all well and good in theory but it has made me think how vulnerable we are whilst out walking our dogs. I was reading an article recently which said lots of people depend on their dogs to protect them the article stated that in reality dogs offer little more protection than if you were walking alone. I know Jake is very loyal and would try his best but he is a JRT. Also what if they tried to hurt Jake? The reason I was in such a temper the other day was because they threatened to kill Jake. I was just wandering how many of you dogwebbers out there carry some form of protection with you personal alarms/trained in self-defence etc. In London in particular we have had a lot of incidents of this new happy slapping craze. For those of you who don't know this is a craze of beating people up and filming it for a "laugh" on their mobile phones.

Do any of you carry an alarm? if so can you reccomend something? Or do you just depend on your dogs. I'd be very interested to hear your views.

Regards
Laura

I don't carry an alarm but I do carry something like body spray and if any-one tried to attack me I would spray them in the eyes hopefully giving me enough time to run away

I dont carry an alarm but do live in a nice town i still should carry something on me just in case tho

Ive got a dog stop spray which can double up as an alarm if needed but I hardly ever remember to take it

OMG how scary

I dont carry anything. I live in a quiet place.. for now anyway... It seems violence is getting closer by the minute though

ive never had reason to use a personal alarm i just carry my riding crop and use my voice to scream if ever needed but i am lucky where i live myself and my neighbours all walk our dogs together for the dogs last walk at night

I don't carry anything with me, I am quite popular in my town so am safe!! But i do have a baseball bat by the back door

I don't carry anything. i hardly go out on my own the only times are with friends or family and also i live in a so-so area.

i don't have anything ....BUT i don't often go out am far to busy on here

No point in me carrying an alarm - there are no houses or other walkers to hear where I walk

I do carry my phone - and am aware of my surroundings to ensure I do not take risks - if a see a lone male on a path up ahead, I will turn around, for instance

I have often thought that I probably wouldn't be able to walk Molo in the same way if we lived on the mainland; too dangerous