Basset Hound
History
The Basset hound
is a unique breed. The first basset "sighting" dates
to 1585 as an illustration in a dog hunting guide written
by Fouilloux. The woodcut picture shows a sportsman accompanied
by a "badger dog."
It is thought that the friars of the French Abbey of
St. Hubert were instrumental in selective breeding
from various
other strains of French hounds to produce a lower set,
hence slower moving dog which could be followed on foot.
The word "Basset," derived from the French adjective
bas, means a "dwarf" or "low structure".
By the mid-19th century, the two largest breeders of
Bassets in France were producing dogs of slightly different
type,
especially in head and eye, the two types being identified
by the names of their respective breeders. M. Lane's
hounds were broader of skull, shorter of ear and with
a rounder
and more prominent eye. They were generally lemon and
white in marking and had a tendency to knuckling. Count
Le Couteulx
produced hounds that had more narrow heads, more doming
in topskull, a softer, more sunken eye with prominent
jaw and a down-faced look that created more facial
expression. The more glamorous tricolors of Le
Couteulx hounds made
them preferred.
In 1866, Lord Galway imported a pair of French Bassets
of the Le Couteulx type to England. The following
year a mating of these two produced a litter of
five pups,
but as there was no public exposure of them, no interest
in
the breed was stirred. It was not until 1874, when
Sir Everett Millais imported from France the hound, "Model," that
real activity with the breed began in England. For his
support of the breed and continued drive on a breeding
program within his own kennel as well as cooperation with
breeding programs established by Lord Onslow and George
Krehl, Sir Everett Millais has to be considered the "father
of the breed" in England. He first exhibited a Basset
at an English dog show in 1875, but it was not until he
helped make up a large entry for the Wolverhampton show
in 1880 that a great deal of public attention was drawn
to the breed. A few years later, further interest was created
when Queen Alexandra kept Basset Hounds in the royal kennels.
It is also thought that George Washington was owned by
Basset hounds.
The first Basset Hounds were registered with the
American Kennel Club in 1885. In 1935, a national
parent breed
club was organized in the United States, the Basset
Hound Club
of America.
|
