A Brief history of Basset hounds!
Hello again! Today I am going to be talking about the brief history of the Basset hound breed and my own opinion on the breed.
The Basset hound breed originally came from France. Hunting was a favourite pastime of French nobleman during the middle ages. The Basset is believed to be a descendant of the St. Huberts hound. They were named after one particular nobleman; Francois Hubert (656-727), who was a big lover of hunting and is thought to have had several different breeds of hound.
After a life-changing event happened. Hubert converted to Christianity and became a priest,and when he died he was canonised and became Patron Saint of Hunters. The Abbots of St. Hubert continued to breed his strain of hound. The monks named the hounds they were breeding St. Hubert hounds in his honour. Over the centuries, this breed of hound was bred with other French hounds.
The first use of the word “Basset” when one describes a breed of dog with short legs can be found in early French text written in the sixteenth century. The French found them quite useful as part of the hunting pack as they had a keen sense of smell and flush any animal they were hunting out into the open. After the French Revolution, man preferred to hunt on foot and so favoured the slow-moving hounds.
Why we chose the Basset hound…
Bassets are a very unique breed. They are designed to hunt and to be in a pack. So, to have one as a pet might seem a bit much as they have these urges to go off hunting. I know from experience that this is true. Truth be told, I only have about six years experience with Basset Hounds so I can;t say I know everything. In my case, none of our Basset hounds were on their own with us, except for Corry, (who was a Collie/Basset mix) up until we got Honey. Honey learned a lot from Corry and we hope that she has passed on her wisdom, or lack there of, to Buzzy and Bumble.
To be honest, I really do not think that many other breeds of dog can come close to this loving, loyal, and sometimes odd, dogs. I have only ever had Bassets and Collie/Basset mix breeds of dog so I can’t say that they are the best breed when I have never had any other breed of dog in my life.
Despite all my talk of how wonderful the Basset breed is, there are some downfalls to. They are extremely difficult to go on walks when they have caught a scent. They would drag us all over town if they were any stronger! they can be quite cheeky as well, but I still love them very much. It would be a very boring life without my Basset hounds!
Thanks for reading! Until next time my lovely readers! Please feel free to like and share my blog posts!
