I was out surveying my goat’s pasture the other day, and I was a bit dismayed to come across a large portion of horn on the ground.
It was from one of my billies, I knew—though how it could have happened, I had no idea.
Accidents like this were quite common, but I always found it hard to imagine how it could happen.
Especially here, in my calm pasture. I checked up on the goat, though, and he seemed to be okay.
It hadn’t broken off too far down. I wondered if, since the goat wasn’t using it, I could let my dog have the horns.
So, are goat horns safe for dogs?
Goat horns are generally safe for dogs. They don’t often splinter, the material is completely digestible, and they last a very long time. However, the force of a dog’s bite on a horn can cause chipping of the teeth. You should never leave your dog alone with a goat horn.
So, from a digestive standpoint, goat horns are totally safe for dogs.
They won’t cause stomach issues, and your dog will be able to process the material—even for some nutritional benefit!
However, the fact is that there’s always a chance of chipping the teeth.
So, it’s really down to your judgment.
Let’s look further into this.
Are goat horns bad for dog’s teeth?
If goat horns pose any one problem to dogs, it’s to their teeth.
Goat horns are very tough—much tougher than bone.
The outer layer of the horn is a substance called keratin.
Keratin is the same material used in most animal horns, even rhinoceros, and is even how tortoises form their shells.
Naturally, this material is a great deal tougher than bone.
We know dogs are used to chewing bones, and indeed they have become uniquely adapted for breaking up all parts of a skeleton.
However, dogs don’t all have the tough teeth that their ancestors did.
The problem is simply the force of a dog’s bite.
It can clamp down with such enormous pressure, but this can often result in the chipping of the tooth against the hard keratin, rather than any breakage of the horn.
If your dog has had any problems whatsoever with its teeth in the past, a goat horn is probably not a good idea.
Just stick to chewier bones. As I said, many advise supervising your dog while giving it a goat horn, but this won’t be much good if it simply bites down too hard.
Are goat horns digestible for dogs?
Yes, they are—which is the flip side to this issue.
Dogs do tend to enjoy chewing on goat horns, and they can digest what they chew off.
There’s nothing in a goat horn that would do harm to your dog once it has swallowed it—it’s all in the teeth, really.
It really all comes down to your individual dog.
Dogs, as you will surely know, are among the most varied of all household pets.
Some have much stronger jaws than others.
While any dog would be able to digest goat horn once it had eaten it, a small dog with a weaker jaw stands a much bigger chance of breaking its tooth.
Even though you don’t have to worry about it from a digestive point of view, are goat horns really safe for dogs?
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Are horns safe for dogs?
Overall, unfortunately, I can’t give you a straight answer—it’s going to depend.
As I said, you’ll not have an issue from a digestive standpoint. It won’t cause your dog harm internally.
However, anytime you give a dog a goat horn, it stands a chance of chipping its tooth.
Now, for a very large, powerful dog, with a typically canine jaw, this shouldn’t be much of a problem.
The dog will need some time to get used to the pressure it needs to apply, as it will be different to bone.
However, a lot of smaller dogs, or dogs with receded jaws, have a lot of issues with their teeth.
A goat horn stands a huge chance of breaking its teeth.
In my view, it’s not worth the risk.
Bones make perfectly good treats for your dog and will tick all the boxes that horns do.
Can goat horns make dogs sick?
Not really.
Again, there’s nothing about the bone, nutritionally speaking, that poses a risk for your dog.
Goats are precisely the kinds of animals that your dog’s ancestors would have hunted, and you can be sure they wouldn’t have let any part of the animal go to waste.
So, while it is digestible for them and won’t make them sick, this isn’t the same as saying it’s perfectly safe.
If you really want to feed your dog goat horn but you’re worried about their teeth, you could always grind it up and add it to their food.
Though, whether they will notice this is an open question.
So, as you can see, this isn’t necessarily a cut-and-dry question.
The basic answer is that goat horns are safe for your dog.
They can digest and process the material, they will most likely enjoy chewing on it, and it’s unlikely to do any serious harm.
However, your biggest concern is the chipping of the teeth.
There’s not much that can be done to make this right once it’s happened, and even if you’re supervising your dog, it might just bite down a little bit too hard before you can do anything.
Use your judgment—if your dog has sensitive teeth, it’s probably not a good idea.