My work friends have recently bought a dog and they agonised over what breed they should bring to be part of their family.  For me, there was no choice.  It simply had to be a basset hound.  In fact, it had to be two basset hounds.  Initially, it had to be two girl bassets but I was open to persuasion. Having dog sat for a couple of neighbours recently I know we made the right choice.

There is simply no other dog with the depth of character than a basset.  Yes, other dogs have great personalities, pleasing temperaments and bring love and selfless adoration but bassets, well let’s just say their true beauty is in their complexity.  They have a very Shakesperian quality about them which is why I guess they get a mention in Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s night dream.

“Their heads are hung with ears that sweep away the morning dew,”

“Crook-knee’d, and dew-lapped like Thessalian bulls; slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouth like bells.”

What Shakespeare doesn’t mention of course is their willful character.  Their scheming ways.  Their ability to wind you around their little paws and bow to their every need.  In short bassets are high maintenance.  But some are higher maintenance than others.

Little basset suffers from short dog and small dog syndrome.  Being the smaller of our bassets he tends to be more attention seeking, more demanding of neck rubs and most definitely most determined to take pole position with the pack leader as a lap dog.  Fortnum, our laid back big basset, just takes life as it comes and is most grateful for all that he receives.  He is our adventurer, explorer and champion athlete as well as the hungriest basset who can simply not get enough to eat.

Here’s a common view of Fortnum.  Foraging in the undergrowth.

Although such behaviour has got him into deep trouble this week.  Fortnum has been bitten by the undergrowth – somehow during one of his snuffling forays he was poked in the eye.  Not just a little superficial scratch that hurt and then got better.  A full grown stab in the eye.  All I knew was that he was suddenly pawing his face and tears streaming from those big doeful eyes.  Our big basset was in trouble.

Basset trouble usually involves a trip to the vet and the sound of the ringing till.  Thank goodness for insurance.  He is now dosed up on pain killers, antibiotics and eye drops every four hours.  Not to mention trips back to the vet every other day to check progress and make sure that there is no infection.  It’s a better safe than sorry strategy to treat it so aggressively.

You’d think that with all that proding and poking you might just want to curl up and stop eating.  But our big basset is made of sterner stuff.  He’s otherwise fine although feeling a bit sorry for himself.

Here’s Mason’s typical behaviour when there is a camera about.  Indeed when anyone is around that might be vaguely interesting.  This is a basset that would sell his soul for another neck rub or a piece of cheese.  He’s perfected his pawing technique so that persistent pawing will get him the result he wants.  This basset is no fool, he likes his home comforts and loves to be with us.

I admire dogs of all shapes and sizes but can’t help think that the bassets are the perfect package.  Compact in size but with huge personalities and potential for mischief. The big drawback is that they tend to be independent minded and have the ability to shower an entire room with slobber with the quick shake of their heads.

Most definitely high maintenance.  But worth every hard working moment!