Where did Basset Hounds come from?
The first mention of the Basset Hound is found in a 16th-century text about badger hunting. Dwarfed short-legged specimens occur in many breeds and have been known since ancient times, but it is difficult to know at what point such dogs were purposefully bred and which ones led to the present basset hound. The word basset is derived from the French word bas, which means low thing or dwarf, so that definitive evidence of the breed may be hard to follow. Short-legged dogs were used by the French for hunting at a slower pace, but most of these dogs were dispersed, and their fates undocumented, during the French Revolution. The history becomes clearer after the revolution, when greater numbers of commoners took up hunting, often aided by guns. They needed a dog that they could follow on foot, but that still had great scenting ability and strong, heavy bone in essence, a short-legged version of the pack hounds popular with the aristocracy. Because the basset could not pursue its quarry at s
