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General Description
of the Basset Hound
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The Basset Hound is a hunting dog. He was bred for
hunting small game. He is a scent hound. He follows
ground-held scent or that of trodden foliage that has
been bruised by the game in retreat.
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The Basset Hound is used primarily for hunting rabbit
although he is successful in hunting other small game.
The Basset's long ears were developed to stir up the
scent for his large nose to smell. The folds of skin
under the chin, called the dewlap, are for trapping and
holding the scent.
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His large feet
give him steadiness and his heavy bone is to make him sturdy.
His short legs enable the hunter to follow him apace on foot.
The Basset Hound must have a great lung capacity and large,
strong heart so that he can track game for long periods of time. |
Basset
Hounds were historically hunted in large packs, however
nowadays, Basset Hounds are usually hunted in pairs, called a
brace. They are expected to have the endurance and stamina to
hunt day after day in widely varying terrain, often with dense
undergrowth and in all weather conditions that permit hunting
small game.
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The
Basset Hound is one of the very few breeds for which there is
substantial competition in all four sectors of the sport: field
trialing, tracking, obedience and conformation. The Basset
Hound, as you can readily see, is a very different sort of dog.
While he is so often referred to as the clown of the canine
world, the reasons for this strange, distorted frame are the
very reasons why soundness is so important to his very survival. |
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