I notice that you did not say he was on a leash and that you had ahold of the leash. In this area, you would have been somewhat responsible since the laws required that a dog be on a leash. Second, were you on your property and did the other dog come onto your property? Then the owner is responsible for not have their dog restrained as well.
- CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEAL 7
Long gone from most of America are the days when you could answer a longing whine from your dog by opening the back door and letting it roam the neighborhood at will. Besides the fact that many people live in apartment buildings where back doors open onto upper-story balconies, roaming dogs are considered outlaws almost everywhere, either by state law or by city or county ordinance.
"Leash laws" generally require dogs to be on a leash and under control whenever they're off their owners' property, unless a specific area is designated for unleashed dogs. Some laws apply only at night (when dogs may form packs and do the most damage to livestock) or allow an owner to have a dog unleashed if it is under "reasonable control." 8 Even dog owners who let their dogs off a leash only because they're confident they have complete control over them are probably in violation of a leash law.
The intensity of enforcement, however, varies from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood. In many places, an owner is unlikely to be cited if the dog really is under voice control and not bothering anyone, even if in technical violation of a leash law. But in some cities, police enforce leash laws strictly, especially if they have received complaints about unleashed dogs in a certain area. Ask about the custom in your neighborhood. A police department may have adopted an informal policy of not issuing citations in the early morning if a dog is under control, but strictly enforcing the leash law in a crowded park where a surfeit of dogs have made it unpleasant or unusable for others.
http://doglaw.hugpug.com/doglaw_010.html
