I have 3 dogs and I walk them separately, so that I have only 1 dog to focus on. If I'm walking Murph, who's only 20 lbs, I just pick him up off the ground. Problem solved.

Oz and Gull are too big to pick up, so I do different things depending on the situation. If it's a big dog charging at us, I step in front of my dog and put my hand out in a stopping gesture and do an "Ant" sound. That's actually worked pretty good. The time it failed was when Oz was charged by 2 dogs. It stopped the one coming in from the front, but the other dog attacked from the rear. I was trying to drag Oz away from the situation, while the owner tried to grab her dogs. I eventually let go of his leash and told him to run to my friend who was up ahead of us with her dog. Once he was out of their area everything calmed down.

The time Oz was charged by the lil' Chihuahua, I just stopped and waited to see what he was gonna do. I had plans to pick him up off the ground, if he tried to attack Oz. But once he realized Oz was friendly and we weren't reacting, he decided to be friendly back.

I guess what I'm saying is you have to judge each situation on it's own to decide what's the best approach to take. As to being your fault, it's more then just being on leash. You have to have control too. So for example if your dog is running 6 ft ahead of you and attacks another dog, there would probably be some fault on your part too. At least that's the way it usually worked on Animal Court with Judge Woppner (sp?).

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