I'm a 45 year old woman. My husband isn't interested in hiking with me, so I'm alone a lot. I have been bringing along my German Shepherd, who is 2 and not necessarily well trained (we're working on that) but he is a sweetheart, loyal, and wants to please.

Now, I'm thinking of him as protection for me as well as a companion. He's huge - about 140 pounds of muscle - and people along the trail don't know he's a friendly goofball unless they approach him and see his tail wagging and hear me say that yes, that's what he is. I've always been wary of dogs, even the ones that are supposed to be friendly, because you never really know how they'll react.

Question is, in the extremely unlikely event I am attacked by some creep on a hiking trail and my dog figures out this is a bad thing he needs to stop, what will happen next? Say, the dog bites the bad guy causing injury. The bad guy runs off - or in worst case, is injured to the point he needs medical attention. He says my dog attacked him. I tell the police that he attacked me first. What are the chances my dog and I will prevail, vs. the bad guy winning with me being prosecuted and my dog being put down?

I guess this is still better than being attacked with no dog to protect me, but it's sad to think he'd have to lay down his life for mine.

Just something I think about.