I will getting Fred in a few weeks. I am looking for some advice with dog food choices. Talked with a vet and he said I had to watch what Fred ate because Basset Hounds are prone to bloating. Fred will be 8 eight weeks when he comes home. Any advice would be great. Never had a puppy before or a Basset Hound. I always had older labs or dobermans.
Here's something you might like to read TammyRay!
You can see in the face of the Basset Hound, the laziness that doesn't allow them to please their masters. In fact they were born to please themselves. Training a basset hound will be the hardest thing in the world if you are unable to work along with his/her nature. They are intelligent breed of dogs so successful training requires a simple trick by convincing them that it's not the training or any kind of work but an exciting game where they are going to have lot of treats.
Basset hounds are notoriously obstinate and prone to "selective hearing". So never think that your Basset is too dumb to understand your commands. As I already said, she doesn't want to please her masters as other breed of dogs want to and perhaps it's because that she hasn't put your commands in her top priorities. It may be the reason why your basset hound seems too dumb and stubborn to you. To solve this problem as soon as possible, introduce her to the obedient class and teach her basic commands like "sit", "stay" etc to make things easy for you.
It's important to include exercise in
Basset Hound training to keep her fit and fine. However, exercise is not something that she enjoys at all. Walking is much more her style than jogging or running. But if she smells the scent of a critter, then she's going to run and jump and be agile like she was never before. Whatever her like and dislike is it is important that she gets her regular exercise to avoid becoming obese because she loves eating as much as she loathes exercise.