I am considering purchasing a whole lamb, pig or goat and have it slaughtered for the dogs. Is there a reason to select one animal over the other?

I have fed pork in a few forms but so far, no lamb or goat.

Should I request the meat prepared/cut in a certain way?

Tough call. If I were choosing, I would pick the one that I got the best deal on dollar wise. I'm cheap that way.

That is assuming that one already has decent variety and isn't relying on this purchase to add more variety. If more variety was needed, that would play into my decision.

Here is how I section a deer for the dog.

****Head.
****Neck. Sometimes cut into 2 big chunks. Depends on the size of the deer.
****Remove all the meat from the legs. Discard bones.:wink:
****Shoulder blade with meat still attached. Think pork shoulder roast, only smaller.
****Ribs. Sometimes left in one big slab. Other times I'll cut them up into smaller sections with 2-3 ribs per piece. This would be depend on the size of the dog, IMO. Bigger dog getting bigger food.
****Ain't no damn way I'm giving the dog my back straps, though! If I do a messy job I will save the spine and let him pick off the scraps and gnaw on the vertebra a little for fun.
****Then of course the organs. I get everything but the intestines. Reason being is I would rather use that space for something more worthwhile like MEAT or RMB's.:smile: Plus, they are full of $#i+ and I don't feel like messing with them. Tripe, yes. Worth the trouble. Intestines, not unless you just want 'em.

Cost usually is the decider for me. I can get a sheep or a goat for under $50 live and about 100lbs where pigs here at least tend to run pretty expensive in the smaller sizes. We also have mid size dairies here where I can get week old bull calves for $10 or less in exchange. Not alot of meat on them but it does make my lab happy and the farmer is more than happy to get the $10.

Assuming you are using the entire animal just for the dogs and not taking the better cuts for yourself I would suggest just using primitive cuts at the major joints/parts then having them vac sealed. In goats this is also called an 8 way cut.

I much prefer pigs to lamb or goat. Pound for pound I get a much better yield of meat and edible intestines with pigs/hogs than with the smaller ruminants.

Goats and sheep almost always have a large gut full of grass, hogs will have a moderate amount of feed in their stomachs.

My dogs will eat the injesta from pigs or ruminants that has passed from the stomach so that is not wasted (veggie glop). The large piles of stomach grass from ruminants has to be composted.

With pigs/hogs I don't skin them, I just cut the hide off with the meat chunks (it's not pretty but it saves time, and it works well) and the dogs eat all but the thickest hide (1 1/4" thick over the shoulders on a big Hereford boar is my record so far).
I cut the meat and hide the same way with goats and sheep. Goats have a lot of hair to contend with after the dogs have eaten the meat and hide and passed the hair, or they just eat the meat off of the hide and leave it to be disposed of by me. With sheep I have little raw fleeces to deal with after the dogs are done eating (my dogs won't eat wool).

Pig legs get eaten completely, goat and sheep lower legs and hooves are left over.

I get very little waste (I use everything but the squeal) when I feed pig/hog as opposed to sheep and goats (It feels like I am wasting my time and money dealing with them.).

Now see if you can get a regular butcher to do my butchering method. LOL

I feel like such a wimp... I was going to have the animal butchered and THEN bring it home. The only animals I've slaughterd and "butchered" are excess roosters. I guess I'd better search on Youtube and do some learnin' if I'm gonna consider having my husband butcher it!!! LOL! (I will happily stand nearby and offer constant "oooh, you are SO manly cutting up that carcass!"... )

If you can dress a chicken you can cut up animals for dog food. Really.

If your husband wants to do it just give him a good knife, a good sharpener, some buckets, and tell him how big you want the chunks. I bet he would be happy to disassemble an animal carcass.

I also really, really like my hay hook that has a sharpened point, I use it in one hand to pull on the meat while I cut with the knife in the other hand. It makes things so much easier.

The next smallish animal I do I'll get some pictures (sorry, no video, I have slow-speed Internet).

I'm sure you are right Debbie, it is one of those things I would have to "psyche" myself up for just like I did for the chickens. The hay hook is a great idea, I can see how that would be useful. I'll keep ya' posted!