prepping sheep trotters for livestock guard dog treats

We got a bag full of frozen lamb trotters from the butcher today (we pasture raise sheep) and I need to process them ASAP. I'd like to give them to our dog. He's mostly a livestock guard dog but he's not a very well-trained one. He got too playful with the goats as a puppy and has since lived next to, not with them. He's never killed a goat, lamb or chicken but he has been in with them a couple of times and instigated naughty chasing games. This is all background because I don't want to teach him that it's okay to chew on lamb's legs.

How do I prepare trotters for him? I'm thinking if I can char or scald them to get the hair off, I can then smoke them to dehydrate and preserve them. Then they won't take up freezer space, the bones won't be cooked and cause risk of splintering, AND it won't be a biting through wool and skin situation so he will know one is food and one is not. Even a quick char to remove hair could allow me to put them in my freezer if they aren't completely dried.

Does any one have experience with this? Any advice? I have ears too. And trachea. I might put the trachea right in the dehydrator as they are clean, but I prefer processing the trotters and ears in the outdoor fireplace.

The link below sells them for dogs and just air dries them.  I never thought of feeding my dog Lamb Trotters, but I do feed them dehydrated chicken feet.

Dog Lamb Trotters

Right, they are sold in stores like that all over- pig, lamb, beef- most often air-dried for preservation. There's more to the process though. Imagine sheep and cut it's 4 lower legs off in the field- that's the starting point I am working with. Hair, dirt, hooves and all.

M Waisman wrote:Right, they are sold in stores like that all over- pig, lamb, beef- most often air-dried for preservation. There's more to the process though. Imagine sheep and cut it's 4 lower legs off in the field- that's the starting point I am working with. Hair, dirt, hooves and all.

Here's a guy Field Dressing a Lamb/Sheep.

I've been mulling this one over, since a couple months before you first posted it, because I also have some lamb trotters in the freezer, awaiting my decision on exactly this conundrum. I've taken a certification course in raw, species-appropriate food nutrition for dogs & cats, so while I'm no expert, I do have *some* idea what I'm talking about, when I say that yes - offered as-is (maybe the manure and such washed off, lol) is the most nutritionally beneficial way to feed them to your dogs. But, I also happen to have both sheep and goats, and don't want my dogs to see them, and think, "ohhh, there's supper!!"

I also feed eggs, egg shells, chicken feet, raw bones, raw offal, etc. But, the one thing I always try to do is ensure that what I feed my dogs bears little to no resembled to my livestock. Eggs are not served whole, but raw or very lightly cooked, and the shells are dried, ground to powder, and blended into the rest of their food. Chicken feet, though are thoroughly scrubbed, then frozen or dried - and feed whole, but they don't look or smell at all like they do, attached to the life bird. Deer legs & hooves are the only thing I've given directly from the prey to the dogs, without some prep, but I've no worries of my dogs taking down a deer, even though we live in though we live in the woods (one is a 16 - 20lb Cavalier, the other a 130lb or more Irish Wolfhound - neither leave the house off-lead), because only one small strip of land lies between our property and a 65mph highway, with loads of blind curves.

So, with the idea of protecting my livestock, yet maximizing their nose-to-tail nutritional value to the dogs, maybe washing them thoroughly to remove the ick & lanolin, skinning them, then drying both the skins & the trotters, to give separately, would be sufficient.

skinning...that's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that for some reason. We started the charring and cool smoking process as the weather is cooperative and we were motivated. We charred them enough to burn the hair off and scraped with tongs. There's still some between the hooves and such though.   I think scalding would be simpler than this but we don't have equipment to do that outdoors. Hopefully what we are doing makes them distinguishable to a dog- dinner and not dinner.

The butcher saved all the trotters so we have dozens of them! We barely make money on raising sheep at this scale (all we have time for right now) and I feel so much better about using everything we can. We're buying pastured lamb kibble for the dog, which makes me a little crazy.

We do feed the dog whole eggs because it's so much simpler (he LOVES them). Ground shells go back to chickens after toasting in the oven. Tongue and heart gets ground with grind, and we eat most of the liver. We also have kidneys for the dog that I need to deal with, maybe I'll just boil them outdoors.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Any more insights or ideas are welcomed!

Anything smaller than a deer, the dogs are welcome to the tongue - too much like work to make them fit for human consumption, but we do like tongue. Pretty much any hearts are fair game, we might eat them, or the dogs might. John makes amazing pastrami from the bigger ones. The dogs eat most of the livers. Traeches of any kind are a huge dehydrated treat for them, both. Ears can be good, just be careful with the drying of them. Rawhide can break, splinter and end up tearing soft digestive tissue. They're actually better given as a frozen treat.