Well Andrea, hambling a dog means to cut off the balls of its feet, so its not a practice that has been passed down to modern times. My best guess is that you needed to hamble your dog a bit to keep it from running off and causing chaos in your neighbor's chickens, forming packs with other stray dogs and spreading disease. If you could not control your dog, you would be fined for it, because it was probably easier and more profitable than to track the dog down and kill it.

I would guess that hambling was something the merchant people or peasants might be forced to do, because you certainly wouldn't hamble your hunters, you would have kept them in a kennel. If you are using your dog for meat or security, hambling it would make it less mobile, and a hell of a lot more ornery.