To go walking early alone with my dog?

[Catslovepies]

I walk my dog for an hour each morning from around 6-7am through the local streets, but now it's light out earlier I'd like to do something different. I live local to a beach with lots of trails through the sand dunes. If I were to walk my dog along those trails we wouldn't run into anyone else the whole time, as usually no one else gets there before around 8.

This area isn't really high crime or anything. Would you feel safe walking the trails alone so early? I'd have my phone with me and would tell someone where I was going. I've done it once before and it was amazing although a little bit spooky!

Yabu= too scary/dangerous
Yanbu = sounds fun, go for it!

Yes. Happy to walk around quiet places in the dark.

Of course, you aren’t suggesting anything dangerous - the chances of you e countering a serial killer or crazed dog thief are pretty minimal

Wouldn’t occur to me it might be risky. Prob wouldn’t do it too early in case it’s cold but that’s all

I used to walk my dogs at 6-7 am before work. I loved those early morning walks. I don’t work now plus I no longer feel I could run or defend myself so I don’t do early morning or evening solitary walks. I’m glad I did when it was possible

Be like Granny Weatherwax - make sure you're the scariest thing in the vicinity. (When she walks into the woods, all the monsters run out the other side!)

Trust your instincts. If it makes you feel unsettled don’t do it, you know the area better than us.

I've always walked, run and ridden out at night on the Granny Weatherwax principle: there are scary things in the forest, and I'm the worst of them. Never had an issue - anybody lurking around, waiting to attack someone, probably has higher standards anyway.

I do it all the time. When I worked at my old job, I used to have to take him out at 6am. It was absolutely fine and very peaceful!

'Cause I'm just a girl, a little 'ol me
Well don't let me out of your sight
Oh I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don't let me have any rights

Oh...I've had it up to here!

The moment that I step outside
So many reasons for me to run and hide
I can't do the little things I hold so dear
'Cause it's all those little things that I fear

'Cause I'm just a girl I'd rather not be
'Cause they won't let me drive late at night
Oh I'm just a girl, guess I'm some kind of freak
'Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes

It's so frustrating when women avoid perfectly safe activities because they are 'just a girl'. Maybe we should all just never do anything unless it's completely 100 percent to the max safe.

I think recent increases in dog theft and the dreadful Sarah Everard case have totally put me off solo dog walking for the foreseeable...

I walk lonely places with my dog. I don't know how he'd react if I was attacked. He's a Golden Retriever so although quite big isn't known as a scary beast.
But he makes me feel safe, and walking makes me feel alive. And if I didn't walk I'd feel like a caged beast myself.
Also the more of us who get out the better it is for others. Being visible is the best thing we can do for ourselves since we have no control over the men who might wish to do us harm.

I think it depends why you ask if you're BU.
If you feel uneasy about it- don't go, no-one on here or anywhere else can tell you it's fine, nothing will happen etc.
If you feel perfectly happy about it and someone else is telling you not to go- you are an adult who can make your own decisions and are presumably capable of weighing up the risks vs benefits.
The thing is there are lots of very unsavoury characters about who would absolutely harm a lone woman, no matter how badass of a woman she is. The chances of you encountering them are tiny, but not nonexistent. The question is whether you feel safe, that should be how you judge this.

It would depend entirely on the dog! If it is a proper one who could stand and defend me yes. If i had (Most unlikely) one of the "handbag" variety no.

I used to walk early morning in a horrible part of a major city. I carried a switch knife with me but I knew how to use it. If you are prepared for a a fight and can defend yourself then go for it. If not then maybe go a little later in the morning when there are more people around.

I walk in places I rarely see anyone else at all times of day. I sometimes worry about an accident but never being attacked. I have find my phone on so dh/ dc would find me eventually I assume!

I’ve spent a lot of my life working with offenders.

The vast majority of them were never up before 11am !

I hate this culture of fear that means women are afraid to do anything. I would not do this in a high crime area, but I walk my dog late, early and everywhere in between and love it.

In Winter I take my dog for an early walk in the woods and over the common for an hour and I’m often back home before it’s properly light. It’s rare that I see anyone, and if I do it’s usually our neighbour with her dogs. It’s lovely, and so peaceful.

However, I don’t feel as safe doing the same at night so won’t go alone.

Think I've read too many memoirs by sole women travellers (eg Dervla Murphy) to worry about a quiet English rural beach.

I think it would be highly unlikely for attackers to be waiting around deserted sand dunes at 6am on the off chance that an attackable woman walks past. If someone genuinely wants to attack someone they're going to target areas where multiple women go and where they can run away easily and where they can blend in easily.

@Malteser71

I’ve spent a lot of my life working with offenders.

The vast majority of them were never up before 11am !

That’s my reason for feeling safer in the morning, I figure that anyone who might attack me will still be in bed.

Yep I do it, walk the beach & woods in the dawn/dusk.
I have a scary dog.
It's a precious part of my day

I’d do it. I run at night, in isolated spots. IMO if it’s genuinely quiet area then a potential attacker would probably have got bored /starved/died of exposure before I came along.

I can't vote. The reality is there's a risk. And it shouldn't be this way, and it would be a lovely thing to do.