thanks!
Wow, thank you for all the great input. You all are a wealth of information and this is exactly what I was looking for. I’ve approached this whole idea pretty casually and your comments and experiences really remind me how careful a consideration acquiring a dog, basset hound or otherwise, needs to be.
I’m an animal lover so once I’ve accepted the responsibility of taking on a pet, I would never ever take him/her to a shelter or put him or her down (my diabetic cat who I give three insulin shots a day to can attest to that!) but your insights remind me of how important it is to match an owner’s characteristics with the breed’s so you don’t end up selecting a breed that will make both the owner and the dog miserable. (And if I do decide to get a dog, I’m not going to get him/her while my cat is still alive, the diabetes is enough of a stress on him already).
I’m going to invite your collective scorn by admitting that my attraction to basset hounds rests solely on their cute and cuddly appearance and I know next to nothing about them (which is why I decided to come here to acquire your advice and knowledge). I now realize that appearance alone is a really dumb reason to select a breed (and I recalled that in the past I criticized people for recklessly adopting Dalmatians en masse after each Disney film, not realizing that they’re hyper, high maintenance dogs).
Your comments about the time away from home each day was a real eye opener. My sole pet experience consists of cats and you can leave cats home all day with no problems (in fact, most of them actually enjoy the away time). I now understand that that’s not going to work with a basset hound (or probably any dog). Fortunately, I live close enough to work that I could run home every day at lunch time to walk him/her so I could cut that time in half. The barking issue also worries me (I’m envisioning a situation where I’m away all day except at lunch time and the lonely dog barks loudly bugging the neighbors etc…).
Also, thank you for providing me with the dog breed selector. I’m a very mellow, laid back guy and I’m looking for a fairly relaxed, low key dog. (I don’t mind smelly or drooly, at least with respect to dogs J). I also live in a townhouse with no fenced in backyard, which is unfortunate.
I went through selector and plugged in my requirements (needs relatively little exercise, is friendly towards other animals, is calmer and less ferocious than other dogs, can tolerate cold weather—I live in Wisconsin) and the top 8 were:
Bernese Mountain Dog 100%
Clumber Spaniel 100%
English Toy Spaniel 100%
Pekingese 100%
Saint Bernard 100%
Basset Hound 99%
French Bulldog 99%
Lowchen 99%
It also sounds as though if I were to select a basset hound that I would need to start with an adult that is already “potty trained” and would need less attention than a puppy. (If I were to get an adult I would get him/her from a rescue organization as opposed to a breeder—would I be correct in assuming that like most animals the world already has enough basset hounds without breeders making more?). Also, how long do bassets tend to live?
Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it.