Walking dogs in rural / semi-rural dog location - stranger danger - am I being paranoid?

[hmc]

I live in the countryside and whilst I can lead walk my dogs around the village it seems silly not to use the many areas of local woodland, heath and commonland for off lead walking....

Hand on heart though I have always been a bit worried about walking on my own in lonely places (some might call it paranoid) -so mostly favour one particular location which is off lead walking, but runs parallel and within sprinting distance of a main road (so I feel 'safe' there since I can be seen from the road and it has a reasonable amount of through traffic). This location is not easy to access atm as the road is being dug up

So - today walked somewhere else. I was at the summit of a hill about to walk down and a bloke was 1/4 mile away about to walk up, towards me. No dogs - which is slightly odd because it is not a pleasant walk to be doing currently due to the heavy rain - the ground is heavy going and I don't think you would do the walk for pleasure if you didn't have to! Basically it is unusual to see a none dog owner walking there at this time of year.

Well, i don't know what to make of this - perhaps he could feel me staring at him (I was) but he moved behind some 6ft gorse bushes at once point (he had to bear to his left to do this), loitered there a minute, re-emerged and then went behind them again, only to re-emerge once more.

I decided to phone a friend on my mobile as a deterrent - she answered the phone but I lost reception a few seconds later, however I kept up pretence of being on the phone. As he walked up the hill and I walked down we were separated in horizontal distance (if that makes sence) but at one point and very fleetingly, he beared left and walked towards me closing the gap. Then he seemed to change his mind and retraced his steps - perhaps he saw me on the phone?

So am I being silly - is there a perfectly rationale explanation. Anyone else who walks solo in quiet areas ever experience similar? If you do, is this sort of thing a concern for you?

I think my dog would be flipping hopeless in reality but cling to the hope she might be some use. When she was little we were practising sitting and waiting for people to pass and she did growl at one lone guy but it's the only time she did it. This week we saw another guy on his own who came up and made a bee line for us, which worried me for a moment until I realised he knew Plog from when DH walks her. He was saying how friendly she is and how she liked to say hello to everyone and I couldn't help thinking how rubbish she would be if I was under threat.

I try not to let it worry me as I love the woods and don't want to let fear impact on my enjoyment of them. I have a friend who is too frightened to walk on her own there. She was round the other day and said she had been warned by another dog walker to be very careful as there has been a guy hiding in the bushes taking photos of people, the police have been called. Don't want to worry you HMC but have a feeling you aren't a million miles from us (we're Dorset/Hampshire border) Usually I would say don't worry at it but at the moment I woulld say be a little careful, though in reality the guy in our woods was probably birdwatching, but you just don't know.

Poor guy probably spotted you looking tense and thought he'd hide to save you worrying, and then realised that was not helping either!

My FIL walks miles on his own, they won't have another dog, but he likes to get out.

All sensible precautions have been mentioned really.

i walk my dog every day in a remote place but feel confident because i own quite a big dog and often bump into other regular dog walkers.

a couple of times i have ran in to strange characters one guy kept appearing through dense woodland but he had no dog then i realised he was bird spotting and taking pictures.

another time some guy again no dog suddenly appeared and started walking about 12 feet behind me and every time i stoped hoping he would pass he stood still, i made sure i kept my dog close and asked him if he wanted to pass and he turned round and spat "im not walking past that" i just made my way to a much busier path.

if i was you i would stick to areas where you know is popular with other dog walkers.

I feel fine walking my dogs in the day alone anywhere but really don't like the early morning walks in the dark before work at the moment.

This and this in my local paper, and they are not the only ones. The Ilkley Moor perpetrator was jailed for life. Worrying that their dogs did not protect the women.

Sorry those links did not work. Trying again,
article1 and article 2

Berry, the two cases were from 2001 and 2006 - and incredibly rare - that's precisely why they make headlines. Nobody's saying walking the dog is entirely risk free but there's also no point in letting fear of very uncommon events stop us from enjoying our dogs and the countryside. You could pull out similar rare cases for women attacked while jogging or even just walking home.

And one of those cases was in a park in the middle of Bradford, so hardly a remote rural area! Unless you're going to say women shouldn't ever go out alone in either city or countryside, I'm not sure what the relevance is. You're not 100% safe inside your own home either.

May I suggest OP that you look into the possiblity of self-defense classes? This is a good idea for anyone.

A would-be assailant wouldn't have any idea whether your dog is a pansy or a Rottweiler in disguise, but he won't want to find out the wrong way; the mere fact you have a dog with you is a big deterrant.

Twice (that I remember) I have had to, on my own, fight off would-be attackers (city environments, reasonable neighbourhoods and times of day, etc.) Weirdly enough that has made me confident that I can deal again if I ever have to, although I would least expect to have to on a countryside walk.

Why shouldn't bloke go for a walk in the rain, to clear his head, or just to get from A to B? Lot of people in the countryside lack reliable own transport.

I interviewed a middle-aged man who walked alone often in a Birmingham park with a golf club. He confessed that the golf club was really just for show, otherwise people would look at him askance, like "What are you up to, why are you here?" - all he wanted to do was go for a nice walk.

I have felt the same when walking. we used to live v near some farmers fields and we could walk round the edges of tem, i was walking the dogs (when i had 2) one evening about 8pm and it was jsut getting dark, i didnt see anyone walk towards me until the dogs went mental and a man appeared -he was rather shaken!?

Since then i have alot more confidence as i know my dogs would protect me by at least deterring an attacker - but were safe enough to offer a warning just to keep away- this man had turned out of a track we were near but you couldnt see until you were there IYSWIM.

We only have one dog at the mo, but he is nearly 12 stone and would deter most i think?!

Hi, I too feel abit on edge when out walking my dog. I tend to stick to the open spaces where people pass through.
Shame really as we have lovely woods and fields opposite my house.

I watched on crime watch couple of months back about a woman who got raped walking her labrador near a canal in broad daylight. Her dog ran off and came back once the attacker had gone.
Seeing this has made me worse and I get paranoid that someone will jump out on me or something.

My dog is a boxer, only a pup at the minute but once she is fully grown maybe I will feel safer then...