49 Fun Facts About Basset Hound

The name 'Basset' comes from the French word bas, meaning what?

Low. With the diminutive -et it means 'rather low', and for centuries the word covered any low-set hound, not one breed, which is why the Basset Hound's early history is so hard to trace.

The Basset Hound was bred primarily to hunt what?

Rabbit and hare. The hound's job was to push them out of dense brush toward the hunters, at a pace slow enough to follow on foot.

The Basset Hound's nose is said to be second only to that of which breed?

The Bloodhound. English breeders crossed the two in the 1890s to bring fresh blood and size into an inbred line, and the cross fixed the modern Basset's type.

In 1883 an English earl brought some of America's first recorded Bassets to his ranch in which state?

Texas. Lord Aylesford, shut out of English society after a divorce scandal, had just bought a cattle ranch at Big Spring and brought a pair over to hunt with.

Relative to its size, the Basset Hound holds what distinction among all breeds?

It is the heaviest-boned. The American standard calls it heavier in bone, size considered, than any other breed, which is how a hound under 15 inches tall can top 60 pounds.

The Basset Hound's stubby legs and thick body make it notoriously poor at what?

Swimming. The breed has trouble in the water because of its small legs and dense body, the same build that makes it a slow, steady tracker on land.

What is the loose skin around a Basset Hound's neck called?

The dewlap. As a Basset tracks with its head down, the loose folds help hold smells close to the nose.

What is the purpose of the Basset Hound's characteristically long ears?

To stir up ground scent. As the hound trots, the ears sweep smells up toward its nose; the price is poor airflow inside them, so owners are told to clean the ears every week.

By the American breed standard, a Basset Hound's ears should be long enough to do what when drawn forward?

Fold over the nose. The British standard is more restrained: it asks for ears reaching 'only slightly beyond' the muzzle, 'but not excessively so'.

The UK Kennel Club's breed standard sums up the Basset Hound's temperament as affectionate and what?

Placid. The standard adds 'never aggressive or timid' and the American one says 'mild, never sharp or timid', as suits a hound bred to live and work in a pack.

The Basset Hound's short, crooked legs come from an inherited form of what?

Dwarfism. An extra copy of one growth-factor gene, shared with dachshunds, corgis and more than a dozen other breeds, keeps the leg bones short.

Owners are told not to let a Basset Hound jump down from cars, to protect what?

Spine. All that weight strung between short legs strains the discs between the vertebrae, and a slipped disc can cause pain or even paralysis.

What was the leading cause of death for Basset Hounds in a 2004 UK Kennel Club survey?

Cancer, behind 31 per cent of the 142 deaths owners reported, with old age next at 13. Even so, the breed slightly outlived the survey's average, reaching a median of 11 years and 4 months.

The Kennel Club's 2018 DNA test for Basset Hounds screens for which inherited eye disease?

Glaucoma. A single recessive mutation causes the breed's inherited form, so apparently healthy hounds can carry it; the test lets breeders avoid mating two carriers.

Bloat, a deadly emergency to which Basset Hounds are prone, is the gas-filled twisting of which organ?

Stomach. It swells with gas and food and then twists, cutting off its own blood supply, which is why many owners have it surgically tacked to the abdominal wall.

Bassets are said to descend from hounds of an abbey named for which patron saint of hunters?

St Hubert. Monks at his abbey in the Ardennes bred hunting hounds for wealthy and royal clients, and the Basset type is thought to come from that stock.

Because Basset Hounds were bred to work in packs, owners are warned that many hate what?

Being left alone. The AKC calls Bassets so pack-oriented that they can suffer from loneliness, and suggests anyone considering one hound think about getting two.

Shakespeare's hounds with 'ears that sweep away the morning dew', much like early Bassets, appear in which play?

A Midsummer Night's Dream. Theseus is boasting about his crook-kneed, slow-moving pack to Hippolyta at dawn, moments before the pair find the four lovers asleep in the wood.

A French hunting manual of 1561, the earliest to describe bassets, shows them going to earth after foxes and what?

Badgers. Jacques du Fouilloux's La Vénerie described two kinds of basset and rated the short-coated, crook-legged kind the better badger dog, because it would stay longer underground.

The Kennel Club standard credits the Basset Hound with a pack instinct and what kind of voice?

Deep and melodious. Packs traditionally trail their quarry noisily toward the waiting guns, and the AKC still notes that a Basset 'barks in a loud, ringing voice'.

Why were short-legged hounds so prized in old France?

Only aristocrats could hunt on horseback, so everyone else needed a hound slow enough to follow on foot. When the Revolution all but ended the mounted hunts, bassets boomed.

Which French ruler's Bassets were shown in bronze at the 1853 Paris Salon?

Napoleon III. Emmanuel Frémiet's bronzes of his hounds were soon followed by official work, including a series of military statuettes made for the emperor himself.

Pops, an elderly Basset Hound whose back legs are paralysed, joins the search party in which animated film?

The Secret Life of Pets. Dana Carvey voices Pops, whom the Pomeranian Gidget recruits, along with a hawk, to help track down her missing neighbour Max.

Which small hound did Victorian breeders cross into the inbred Basset Hound?

Beagle. England's early Bassets descended from a handful of French imports, so breeders tried Beagle crosses first and, in the 1890s, a far bigger hound to add size.

Which future queen consort kept a kennel of Basset Hounds at Sandringham in the late 1800s?

Queen Alexandra. As Princess of Wales she joined the supporters of the Basset Hound Club soon after it was founded in 1884, giving the newly imported breed a royal backer.

Who is considered the father of the modern Basset Hound?

Everett Millais. He bought the French hound Model at a Paris show in 1874 and exhibited him at Wolverhampton the next year, the first Basset shown in England.

How did an 1890s breeder manage to cross a Basset Hound with a much larger hound?

Artificial insemination, a fairly novel idea at the time. The mother, a far larger hound named Inoculation, then delivered twelve pups by caesarean section.

The classic Basset Hound tricolour, named first in the Kennel Club standard, is black, white and what?

Tan. The standards are relaxed about the rest: any recognised hound colour is acceptable, and the American one adds that the distribution of colour and markings 'is of no importance'.

A Basset Hound will bark at a visitor, so why is it rated a poor guard dog?

It befriends strangers. Its bark makes it a decent watchdog, but the AKC warns it is more likely to make friends with unexpected guests than to chase them off.

How does Colonel Morrison's hunting strain of Basset differ from the traditional type?

Shorter ears. After the war more of his hunt's country went under the plough, so Morrison wanted a more active hound and crossed a Harrier into his Westerby pack in 1950.

A Basset puppy appeared on the cover of Time magazine in February 1928 for a story about which event?

The Westminster dog show. Time wrote up that year's show at Madison Square Garden as if the puppy on its cover had attended and observed it.

The Basset-logo shoe brand Hush Puppies is named after which food of the American South?

Cornmeal balls. Company legend says a sales manager heard that farmers tossed the fried 'hush puppies' to barking hounds to quiet them, and thought the name suited shoes that soothe aching feet.

The shoe brand with the Basset Hound logo grew out of a wartime push to make gloves from which animal's hide?

Pig. The leather proved soft and flexible but not tough enough for work boots, so the company made casual shoes from it instead and launched them nationally in 1958.

Which singer serenaded Sherlock, a top-hatted Basset Hound, on The Steve Allen Show in 1956?

Elvis Presley. Allen put him in white tie and tails to sing 'Hound Dog' to the Basset, and the next day he went into the studio and recorded the song.

Fred Basset, the comic-strip hound drawn by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham, first appeared in 1963 in which British newspaper?

Daily Mail. After Graham died in 1991 his strips kept the feature going for another 18 months, until a new artist took over with the help of his daughter, Arran Keith.

What is the comic-strip hound Fred Basset called in Germany?

Wurzel. When he turned 50 in 2013, Duisburg's city library marked the birthday with an exhibition, with his creator's daughter as guest.

Which animation director created the deadpan Basset Hound Droopy for MGM in 1943?

Tex Avery. He made the small, hardly imposing hound a running joke: the sleepy looks hide astonishing strength and a knack for outwitting every villain.

Droopy turns up as a deadpan lift operator in which 1988 film?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was voiced there by Richard Williams, the film's own animation director, and worked the lift again in the Roger Rabbit short Tummy Trouble.

In Stanley Coren's book The Intelligence of Dogs, the Basset Hound ranks near the bottom for what?

Obedience. Breeds in that bottom group obey a first command a quarter of the time or less, but the AKC calls the independence deliberate: a Basset was bred to follow a trail without waiting for orders.

In The Dukes of Hazzard, which character dotes on Flash, a notably slow Basset Hound?

Sheriff Rosco. He called her 'Velvet Ears', but the joke was on him: Flash liked the Duke boys he was forever chasing and saved her barking for his boss.

A long-told American legend has the Marquis de Lafayette sending Basset Hounds as a gift to which Founding Father?

George Washington. Lafayette really did ship him French hounds in 1785, but they appear to have been a far larger breed, which he bred into his own pack of foxhounds.

In Columbo, what is the name of the lieutenant's Basset Hound?

Dog. The show was sparing with names: the lieutenant's own first name is never spoken either, a gap one trivia-book author used to plant a fake first name and catch copycats.

In Disney's The Aristocats, the Basset Hound Lafayette is the companion of which larger hound?

Napoleon. He insists he is the leader of the pair, yet whenever Lafayette makes a suggestion he waves it away and then adopts the idea as his own.

In The Great Mouse Detective, what is the Basset Hound Basil borrows to trail a scent called?

Toby. He is Sherlock Holmes's own pet, and he sniffs out the trail of the peg-legged bat Fidget all the way to a toyshop.

Batou's Basset Hound Gabriel appears in the sequel to which 1995 anime film?

Ghost in the Shell. Director Mamoru Oshii puts his own pet Basset in film after film; asked why the same images recur, he said he was 'marking poles like a dog does'.

Bronzes of TV's Columbo and his Basset Hound stand on Falk Miksa Street in which European capital?

Budapest. The street honours Miksa Falk, a 19th-century Hungarian politician rumoured, without proof, to be a relative of the actor Peter Falk.

In the 1950s sitcom The People's Choice, what could the audience hear from Cleo the Basset Hound?

Her thoughts. An actress, Mary Jane Croft, voiced Cleo's wisecracks about her owner's troubles on the soundtrack.

How does a Basset Hound carry its slightly curved tail on the move?

High above the long back. On the detail the standards part company: the American one wants the tail 'carried gaily in hound fashion', the British one 'well up' in a gentle sabre curve but 'never curling or gay'.

Besides shedding, which habit makes the Basset Hound a poor match for house-proud owners?

Drooling. It happens mostly in warm weather, and owners also have to clean and dry the loose folds of skin around the head regularly to keep the houndy smell down.