Basset Hound Rescue

ASH rescue Basset Hounds and rehome them. We never have puppies, but sometimes have young adult and adult dogs.

If you have not had a Basset before, we would be happy to talk to you about the characteristics of the breed.

Basset hounds have a reputation to be great with children, funny, low to the ground (small?) dogs. Suitable for everyone and all sort of people. So is that what they are? No, of course not, they are funny and low to the ground. Not small though, if you have never seen one, look at a Labrador and imagine an adult lab on very short legs.

If you like a dog that is easy to train and will do what you like it to do, when you like it to do it, think again. To train a Basset you need to be patient, consistent (as in same rules every day, no exceptions) and you need time as well as a strong personality.

So are they good with children? Yes, they can be, much depends on your ability to explain to your children and your Basset that no tidbits are ever given to your dog by the children. If a 3 year old gave the last bite of his sandwich or biscuit to the Basset today, tomorrow the Basset might jump up on the child to grab the last bite, knocking the child over. Bassets love jumping up on people. They are not always easy to housetrain, they need to see the advantage of anything you ask them to do or not to do, which makes training a bit of a challenge.

Bassets are suitable to live indoors with the family, but are also well up to living in an outdoor kennel, e.g. the Igloo or Ruffhauz kennel, they are insolated, nice looking, easy to clean and will last. We use them here and are very happy with them. Bassets are scent hounds and not very good in traffic, they follow their nose and don’t use their eyes, so they should never be in traffic off the lead. Too many get killed on the road, I even know of one that was killed by a train.

They are sometimes referred to as the Clowns under dogs and yes, they can make me laugh any day.

Are you still with me? Why don’t you come and visit us, meet our Bassets, maybe take one for a walk and then make up your mind. Remind me to explain about the floppiness factor. Do let us know when you are planning to come, so that we will be home. Send us an email, tell us where you are traveling from and we will send you directions. Any day after 2 pm we welcome visitors to A.S.H. RESCUE CENTRE.

A rescue dog is the kind choice, not the cheap solution, a donation will be asked for.