Basset Hound: From French Hunts to English Breeding
In 1874, Everett Millais imported a French hound named Model into England. Low to the ground and long in the ears, the Basset Hound began with hunting dogs. French Basset hounds were reaching England at least as early as the 1870s, and Millais is considered the father of the modern breed. Model was an important foundation hound; a later mating with a Bloodhound helped develop a heavier English type. The breed that emerged had French origins and an English breeding history.
The French name points directly to the dog's stature: bas means low, and the diminutive ending makes basset mean rather low. A dog called a Basset appeared in Jacques du Fouilloux's illustrated hunting book La Venerie in 1585. His dogs hunted foxes and badgers. The type is believed to have arisen through a mutation among Norman Staghounds, themselves descended from the St Hubert's Hound; the early dogs were probably bred back to that hound and related French strains. Before the French Revolution around 1789, hunting on horseback was reserved for kings, major aristocratic families, and country squires. Short legs made these dogs valuable to hunters traveling on foot.
During the reign of Napoleon III, the Basset Hound gained a place in French public life beyond the hunt. In 1853, the animal sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet exhibited bronze sculptures of the emperor's hounds at the Paris Salon. The dogs then attracted international attention at the first exhibition of dogs held in Paris in 1863. Their imperial association and exhibition appearances preceded the controlled breeding of shorthaired Bassets, which began in France in 1870. At that stage, breeders were developing different forms of the low hound.
Count Le Couteulx of Canteleu established a practical type with straight front legs, called the Basset d'Artois. Louis Lane developed a more striking form with crooked front legs, known as the Basset Normand. Breeding those types together produced the original Basset Artesien Normand. Some French dogs imported into England belonged to that breed, but English linebreeding during the 1880s brought out a different, heavier type.
Millais pursued a heavier Basset Hound in the 1890s. He bred a male called Nicholas to a Bloodhound female named Inoculation through artificial insemination. Their litter was delivered by cesarean section, and the surviving puppies were subsequently refined through breeding with French and English Bassets. Great Britain established the first breed standard for the modern dog at the end of the nineteenth century. That standard was updated in 2010.
The hunting task behind this breeding was to follow rabbits and hares at a pace people could maintain without horses. A keen nose and short stature suited the dog to tracking small game on foot. Its scenting ability is described as second only to the Bloodhound's. The long ears help stir up scent near the ground. Around the neck, the hanging skin is called a dewlap. Wrinkles and loose skin also give the face its sad expression. The slightly crooked legs support a broad chest and ribs, and the long back carries a gently curved tail held high.
The Basset Hound has the proportions of a large dog carried on short legs, with unusually heavy bone relative to its size. Its coat is generally short, smooth, and close, with coarser hairs beneath the tail. Black, white, and tan combinations are common, alongside red and white coats. The breed comes in hound colors other than merle and brindle. The hunting dog has also become a companion with a gentle, docile temperament: friendly, outgoing, playful, and tolerant of children and other pets.
The breed's median life span is ten to twelve years. A French study in 2015 found a life expectancy of 10.3 years, while a UK study in 2024 found 12.5 years. The dogs are prone to yeast infections and several skin conditions, including allergic skin disease. They are also among the breeds commonly affected by primary open angle glaucoma, linked to an autosomal recessive mutation of the ADAMTS17 gene.
Hunting also continued to shape a separate working variety. Colonel Morrison developed Bassets purely for the hunt, with straighter, longer legs and shorter ears. In 1959, this variety was admitted to the Masters of Basset Hounds Association through an appendix to the Stud Book. Meanwhile, the show ring brought a different milestone for a dog from Malta. In 2004, Switherland Sensation At Haven became the first dog from Malta to win Best of Breed at Crufts.