waterlili,

I think the gizmo you are talking about is a springer, attaches to the bike to let your dog stray from a perfect heel without flipping you over unless she stops in her tracks to sniff like my dog ;-)

There's a thread here somewhere with info about riding with dogs has more about this.

I'm not an expert in self defense but since I've trained for a looooong time I want to put my $0.02 in.

Bad guys (and gals, let's be fair) pick their victoms whether spur of the moment or planned. All things being equal they go for the easiest mark.

This absolutely positively 100% does NOT mean that ANYONE who is the victoms fault. It is totaly NOT the victoms fault, ever.

But I feel strongly that whatever you do to make yourself feel strong, confident, aware and secure in your body is the best self defense you can possibly do. You are hopefully never aware that there may have been times when a "bad guy" looks at you and thinks "nah, looks too much like work" but in that moment you had just mastered self defense.

So just keep riding, hiking, climbing...anything with an 'ing!!! 8-)

TREK420