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Had a talk with the sheriff's department animal control officer today. here is what I learned about dog at large. if the dog is a hunting dog your typically not breaking any laws if it is hunting and your in the field.
here's the asinine part. if the dog is not in a kennel,yard or other ill defined form of restraint on your property you can/will be charged. so if i hunt on my property I am breaking the leash/animal at large laws?? size of property/ boundary fence type/height. is not a consideration. the officer wasn't sure about state/federal lease land or private lease land. so I now know I can't legally hunt my property or train dogs on it be they cow dogs, bird dogs or hounds unless they are leashed.
I asked what the maximum size a fenced area maybe before it is no longer considered a legal kennel? had no Idea. so, you can't confine a dog on a short chain. or a kennel deemed to small for extended periods. I'm ok with that if it is specified and reasonable. but to large?? and making a legal action illegal on your personal property. that's over reaching.
what about those hsus type folks that recommend confining your pet to a crate kennel over night to facilitate training/housebreaking. that is typically over the specified time but no one is getting charged for it. many animal shelters use night kennels that fall short of the legal dimensions. anyone else dealing with something similar to this?

Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. You are on your property and should be able to train or hunt as you see fit in legal seasons ofcorse. A rancher with a cow dog likly has hundreds, if not thousands of acres with just barbed wire for a fence... I don't know why you had to talk to the officer, likly some incident?

I might be guilty of the same thing... My dogs have free run of 10 acres with 6 foot high horse fence. We have an orchard and the dogs keep the bears from destroying the trees, no fence can keep a bear out but having dogs on the other side of the fence sure helps.

I have had a few incidents outside of the orchard with other peoples loose aggresive non-hunting dogs. And had to speak with animal control after being reported but so far as soon as I let her know that the other dogs were also loose she backed off. Thing is I was hunting and they were not but I didn't get into that with her. She saw how my dogs are kept and didn't say a word about it...

Most of the time when I run into people on the trail with loose dogs nothing happens beyond a bit of butt sniffing, on the dogs part

my home place is some bigger then that. the law is in the books in various forms of omission and language. as a side note if a bordering land owner places a complaint against you for animal feces you are legally bound to remove it from your property or face charges. these laws seem to be based on urban environments and lifestyles not rural. can you see the removal cost on three hundred head of mother cows? "ranches/livestock operations aren't exempt" you would have to hope the judge would make a decision in your favor although the wording is cut an dried. or buy diapers. the deputy was out investigating a incident on the mtns. guess some one was throwing rocks at someone else and their dog. claiming a dog at large issue that got confrontational. I met them on the road home and apparently we warranted interest also being at large I explained I was on my property. then received instruction on the wording of the laws. fortunately we were in pursuit at the time

i think this is a situation where the officer's discretion would come into play..like you said pegleg, your on your own property engageing in an activity with your animals, be it hunting, roading, or what have you, i dont see a problem.
seems like more than enough laws contradict themselves anyway..if i were you i wouldnt pay it any mind. like you said, more geared for an urban setting..