A woman has told of the terrifying moment that two men tried to snatch her dog at a nature reserve this week.

Laura Ginman, from High Wycombe, was walking Phoebe, her nine-month-old miniature black poodle, at Chairborough Nature Reserve on Tuesday afternoon.

While they were playing at the park, Laura said she suspected a man was watching them.

She said: "We were walking through the little park just before the nature reserve when I noticed this guy, who was on the phone, was staring at us while we were playing with the ball. It was a bit strange and made me feel uncomfortable so we carried on walking."

After moving on through the park, Laura noticed two other men near the bottom of a hill, holding an open can of hotdogs. 

Laura said: "The two men started shouting ‘here doggy’ to try and get Phoebe to come over. They were holding a can of hot dogs and waving them around.

"I shouted down to them ‘please don’t feed my dog’. I started to panic and I was calling her to come back to me.

"When they heard me calling her name, they then started calling her by her name to try and tempt her over."

Laura told of her fear when the two men then tried to grab Phoebe.

She said: "I started running towards her but I fell over, dropping my keys and my phone. I was shaking. If they had taken her, she would have been gone and I could have lost her forever. 

"She has a habit of teasing people by circling around them, so she didn’t get too close to them luckily.

"I had fed her before we went out so she wasn’t hungry, but if she had been, I don’t know what might have happened."

Laura immediately called the police after the ordeal and hopes her story will encourage other dog owners to be vigilant when taking them out.

She said: "It was so scary. I want to share this story because I want as many people as possible to know what happened. I want to make people aware that this sort of thing can happen."

Thames Valley Police confirmed that they were called at 1.08pm on Tuesday, June 23, to a report that two men had attempted to take a dog at Chairborough Nature Reserve, near Cressex Business Park.

The two men are described as white, aged in their mid to late twenties and of slim build.