The Retriever, Dog, & Wildlife Blog

Posted in dog breeding, dog health | Tagged Basset hound | 11 Comments

11 Responses

1. on November 3, 2012 at 1:18 am | Reply countrymae

   Fad Fashion strikes again.

   
   
2. on November 3, 2012 at 3:07 am | Reply Tiffany

   This isn’t to say I disagree with what you’re getting at, but I wouldnt use PDE as a source to back yourself up. It’s well known that that “shockumentary” is completely one-sided and it meant to scare more than educate.

   
   
   • on November 3, 2012 at 9:34 am | Reply megrim43

     Have to agree that the creator of PDE is a sensationalist, but the show Basset is truly awful. No-one has mentioned the weak rear ends, and although you can`t tell from the video, show Bassets have a strong and unpleasant body odour which I suspect comes from the excessive folds of skin.

     There are of course many working Bassets in the UK, which look a lot like the one pictured in this clip which the breeder despised. They are athletic little hounds with clean lines and no excessive skin, and I think are lighter in bone.

     Elizabeth

     
     
   • on November 3, 2012 at 3:22 pm | Reply bearcoatpei

     I totally agree. PDE was a hatchet job on a sitting target with no balance. Well, it was a lot easier than exposing a puppy farm and having a shotgun pointed at you I suppose.

     However, you have to look at breeds like bassets, bulldogs, pekingese to name but three and think why on earth would you do that to a dog and how can their owner not see what we can. Breeding in grotesque and unnatural traits that prevent a dog even keeping itself clean without help, let alone doing it’s traditional job, yet finding it aesthetically pleasing is beyond my comprehension. And that’s coming from a shar-pei owner! Saying that, even the modern shar-pei type has the agility and instincts of their ancestors. In fact, the little beggars can be a bit too willing to show their hunting prowess.

     
     
3. on November 3, 2012 at 9:44 am | Reply megrim43

   I found a nice picture of a modern working Basset…

   .http://www.albanybassets.co.uk/images/Albany/Pogle.jpg

   Elizabeth

   
   
4. on November 3, 2012 at 10:50 am | Reply Peggy Richter

   one might find that if hunting with the basset was allowed and actually required of conformation dogs that less exaggeration would occur. But it’s easy to start having “theoretical” assumptions about what is good when there is no gage used to verify if it really IS good. That is, the long ears and wrinkles are often asserted to be functional, but very few ever actually go and see if they are. The very first sentence in the Basset standard reads: The Basset Hound possesses in marked degree those characteristics which equip it admirably to follow a trail over and through difficult terrain — but how many actually see if their dogs DO have that? I will say that the AKC “meet the breed” photo is far less exaggerated than the PDE example: http://www.akc.org/breeds/basset_hound/index.cfm

   
   
   • on November 3, 2012 at 11:06 am | Reply retrieverman

     The AKC dog isn’t as exaggerated at all, but we also hunt with bassets in different parts of the country.

     
     
   • on November 3, 2012 at 3:29 pm | Reply bearcoatpei

     Considering there has been a photographic record for over a century of what most breeds looked like when they were still doing their traditional jobs, the “theoretical” assumption is a poor excuse. I dare say that some people are so kennel blind that they would swear their dogs could follow that trail. It would take the poor dog days of plodding and tattered ears/undercarriages compared to it’s fleet footed working type brethren. But hey, they could then say that their bassett was fit for function!

     
     
5. on November 3, 2012 at 11:13 am | Reply massugu

   I just can’t watch it al the way thru–it makes me too angry.

   
   
6. on November 3, 2012 at 2:16 pm | Reply Peter Dawson

   Although the old time basset photo shows a dog with a steep shoulder placement that is nothing compared with today’s cruel deformities. The breed club official and judge’s pathetic comments in the clips are an embarrasment here in England, but as you may know, cruel conformation issues are being addressed in Britain. I don’t know about some other countries.These dogs will tend to keep getting thrown out of our shows until the penny drops and the offending breeders give up.

   One of these unfortunate bassets lives in a property next to ours and it’s awful to see her struggle with life. They also own a miniature wirehaired dachshund, but luckily for him he was bred with a healthy length of back.

   
   
7. on November 5, 2012 at 2:16 pm | Reply M.R.S.

   The biggest problem is not necessarily what the the Standard “says”, but the way that people interpret it. If a Standard says “good bone”, that does NOT mean “as much as possible”. It may intend to mean “correct for the breed ” — but the reader may well have no basis from which to know what that is!

   The tendency of humans so often is to seek extremes — that’s easier than recognizing what is “sufficient” and “without exaggeration”. So “short on leg” becomes far too short for any sort of usefulness.

   And the next generation takes it even farther. Sigh.

   
   

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