as far as i know and learnt at college, if the landowner has registerd the path as a conservtion area, the landowner can actually hold you to keeping the dog on the lead but this is not gospel im struggling to remember,
How do i find out if it is registerd ?
Cheers
is the ground adjacent to any english nature/national trust/rspb/forestry commision etc, if it is contact them and see if it is a conservation area otherwise the council may even be able to help, you might find the keeper is just saying this though to keep dogs off of his birds, its his livelihood and puts money in his p