To love basset hounds

I’ve just googled them to have a proper look and I am with you - they are beautiful! All those folds like a chubby baby, so gorgeous. I have a dog with a high maintenance coat and floppy ears and I love grooming him and picking burrs and grass and sticks out of his fur and picking gunk out of his ears so I’d have no issue with cleaning a few extra folds.

Vet here. Smelly isn't normal....it's indicative of chronic yeast over growth.
Life long ear and skin issues are painful, deformed limbs are painful. Anatomically wrong eyelids are painful.

I'm sure the original Bassett hound was bred for a role and it's health...and if we get back to that, I'd be delighted.

"Most" current Bassetts are bred to appeal to humans and they suffer for it.

We see a couple with a basset hound in the park quite regularly. My son absolutely loves her, even made her a birthday card last week 🤣 She is very cute!

They are nice dogs but the health issues and low dog intelligence puts people off. Personally I would never have one.
Like most trends these days dogs are not immune. Huskies were popular about 13 years ago and within 5 years rescues were tripping over them. Poodle mixes have gone a similar route as have pugs. Right now its Daschund mixes. My point is I would hope that people are not just seeing a BH for example and jumping in and getting one from whatever breeder, that they are researching the dog and deciding if its a right fit both for their family and financially. Thats why they are not a popular breed, theres not many families they would suit.

This is my niece, Bessie, who stinks to high heaven and adores my husband. She’s looking up at him with so much love. 😂

Another basset lover here! I had a beautiful big basset boy who was probably the love of my life (sorry DH)
Yes he was smelly and stubborn and had absolutely no recall - he didn't howl though!
He was fantastic with my little kids too.
I miss him every day.

They are beautiful.

I have just picked up Lunas (named cushion) from the floor and put it back on the sofa where she has been sleeping all day on a fleece blanket on a sofa. She screamed at me as though I stabbed her. I give up

They’re hounds they’re doing what they are supposed to do. Although these two were down the field the other day and obsessed with something rotten this hare popped up beside me then ran off like the clappers and this pair didnt notice

I think they are very cute, and all the ones I’ve met have been friendly enough. I spend my free time hillwalking though, so have bigger and more active dogs.

Yes if they pick up a hare or deer scent they are away

She’d just been outside for a wee. You get a lot of this they are obsessed with cleaning but still smell. I have some foam shampoo from Pets at home which helps

This is Myrtle

My husband and I were obsessed with bassets for a long time! I think as we’ve aged we’ve faced reality and know they are not the dogs for us. I had a neighbour in London once who had one and one time I came across her in the local park and she mentioned the dog was never, ever, allowed off his lead when in the city. Because he would follow a scent or trail and just not come back!

YABU, I love dogs but Bassets aren’t appealing at all to me. The drool and the smell 🤢 And the baggy saggy eyes so you can see the inside of their eye socket. Ewww, no.

The show line ones are prone to a lot of health issues due to their extreme conformation - IVDD (spines), ear infections, eye issues. I look at them and just see the potential for a lot of discomfort and pain.

The working-line ones are much more physically balanced.

I know a basset cross who is a very fun dog - a bouncy personality, and a much more practical body than a pedigree basset.

With a stuffed toy Bertie Bassett in the background

This is Luna

We were out for a post Christmas walk over twenty years ago and there was a Basset Hound group who had met up for a walk there too. Basset Hounds everywhere, it was very funny. One alone is amusing, tens of them is hysterical.

My two whinge for England. If you are not awake at 6 in the morning in this house you soon will be then you are at their service for the rest of the day 🙄

My mum and dad had one when I was born. He was absolutely gorgeous but also enormous - his dad was a Crufts winner but he turned his foot as a puppy so was sold as a pet. They're not really what most people want from a dog. They slap spittle on your walls when they shake their heads and will howl (but ours would not bark as a security dog as it hurt his ears), plus if they sit down on a walk you are not getting them going again. Plus they need all their folds and their ears cleaning constantly or they get sore.

I saw a pair on a beach once and they both ambled towards me to greet me. They were so cute and.funny, like.ywo old men saying hello.