Price: £11.95

Quantity:

»
(options available - see below)
»Add to Wish List

NOTE: Product images may illustrate optional extras.

A unique hand crafted plaque depicting Two Basset Hound Pups.

You can have your own dog on a plaque complete with your dog's name if desired.  All you require is a photograph, refer to our personalised section for details.

All our resin coated plaques are hand crafted in Scotland by skilled craftsmen using the finest quality materials. Most of our plaques are available in different sizes, wood colour and shapes. They all are finished to a very high standard and are unmistakable by their very high gloss appearance. The plaques are very easily cared for as they only require a damp cloth to keep their everlasting shine.

Please note these plaques are not intended for outdoor use but will last for many years. In the case of our personalised plaques this will give you a unique, lasting memory of that special event or loved one and will eventually become a treasured heirloom.

The Bassett Hound
The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of dog of the hound family. They are scent hounds, bred to hunt by scent. Their sense of smell for tracking is second only to that of the Bloodhound. The name Basset derives from the French word "bas" meaning "low;" "basset" meaning, literally, "rather low."
These dogs are around 36 to 38 cm (13 to 15 inches) in height at the withers. They usually weigh between 50-70lbs. They have smooth, short-haired coats but a rough haired hound is possible. Although any hound color is considered acceptable by breed standards, Bassets are generally tricolor (black, tan, and white), open red and white (red spots on white fur), closed red and white (a solid red color with white feet and tails), Honey And White (Honey Coloured Back, Light Brown Spotty Nose And Legs Light Brown Tails With White Tip) and lemon and white. Some Bassets are also classified as gray or blue; however, this color is considered rare and undesirable. They have long, downward ears and powerful necks, with much loose skin around their heads that forms wrinkles. Their tails are long and tapering and stand upright with a curve. Some prefer that the tail be tipped in white. This is so they are easily seen when hunting/tracking through large bushes or weeds. The breed is also known for its hanging skin structure, which causes the face to occasionally look sad; this, for many people, adds to the breed's charm. The dewlap, seen as the loose, elastic skin around the neck, and the trailing ears, help trap the scent of what they are tracking.
The Basset Hound is a large dog on short legs. They were originally bred by the French to have achondroplasia, known as dwarfism. Their short stature can be deceiving; Bassets are surprisingly long and can reach things on table tops that dogs of similar heights cannot.
Basset Hounds are a breed of French lineage, believed by some to be a descendant of the St. Hubert's Hound, a dog similar to the present-day Bloodhound. Friars of St. Hubert's Abbey in medieval France reputedly desired a shorter-legged dog, capable of following a scent under brush in thick forests, as hunting was a classic sport of the time. Both Bassets and St. Hubert's Hounds were bred to trail, not kill, their game.
The first application of the word "Basset" to a breed of dog can be traced to La Vénerie, an illustrated text on hunting written by Jacques du Fouilloux in 1561. Fouilloux illustrates wire-haired bassets resembling the modern Basset Fauve de Bretagne. In Fouilloux's treatise, bassets are used to pursue foxes and badgers to ground, after which the quarry is dug from its burrow and so reduced to possession.
Other early French Bassets closely resembled the Basset Artésien Normand, which is still a breed today. The Basset Artesian Normand is one of the six recognized French Basset breeds. Originating in Artois and Normandy, it dates back to the 1600's. The Basset Artesian Normand looks like a Basset Hound, but lighter in weight. A short, straight legged hound, its body is twice as long as it is high. Its head is dome-shaped and powerful with hairy cheeks. The neck is slightly dewlap and the muscles are smooth with a moderate amount of wrinkles. The chest is round with clearly visible sternum. The coat is very short, bicolor: tan and white, or tricolor: tan, black and white. Breeders prefer white feet.
By the turn of the 20th century, the Basset Artesian Normand was developing into two distinct lines, straight-legged hunters and crocked-legged, droopy-eared companion and show dogs. French breeder Leon Verrier developed today's standard, which blends attributes of both varieties. The Artesian Basset needed straight legs that would neither hinder his speed nor drain his energy in order to work in unruly terrain, brush and briar. The breed was recognized in 1911.
Because many short-legged dogs from this time were called Basset and record-keeping from this time was sparse, it is difficult to speculate which of these breeds have bloodlines in common with today's Basset Hounds. It is commonly believed that Marquis de Lafayette brought Basset Hounds to the United States as a gift to George Washington.
In France, basset hounds achieved noticeable public cultural popularlity during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1852-1870). In 1853, Emmanuel Fremiet, "the leading sculptor of animals in his day" exhibited bronze sculptures of Emperor Napoleon III's basset hounds at the Paris Salon.[9] Ten years later, in 1863, the Basset Hound reached international fame at the Paris Dog Show. At that time there were two common Bassets, those with a rough coat (Basset Griffon) and those with smooth (Basset Français). The dogs were further classified by the length of their legs. The two popular Basset breeders at this time were M. Lane and the Count Le Couteulx.
In 1866, Lord Galway imported a pair of Le Couteulx Bassets to England, but it was not until 1874 that Basset Hounds were widely introduced there by Sir Everett Millais. The Kennel Club accepted the breed in 1882 and the English Basset Hound Club was formed in 1884. The American Kennel Club first recognized Basset Hounds as a breed in 1885. In 1935, the Basset Hound Club of America was organized in the United States. The current American breed standard was adopted in 1964.
In North America basset hound picnics and waddles are traditions in many regions and draw impressive crowds and participations from in some cases hundreds and thousands of bassets and their owners. For example, The Allentown Basset Picnic thrived for seven years before becoming Tri-State's Basset Freedom Fest in 2003. Other major annual basset hound events, including the Buffalo Basset Bash, the New Orleans Basset Boogie, and the Michigan Basset Waddle, share many similarities with North American food festivals and even crown king and queen basset hounds in a manner reminiscent of festival crownings of pumpkin queens. Of course, other traditions, such as deciding which basset has the best waddling butt or can keep a towel on its head the longest, are generally unique to basset hound picnics and waddles. These events also feature a wide variety of purchaseable and usually custom-made items depicting basset hounds and therefore play a role in raising money for basset hound rescue organizations and boosting local economies. Often featured at shows and festivals is a world-famous pack of performing basset hounds known as "The Happy Basset Hounds." The trio consist of Eleanor, Annabel and Buster, and they make their home in Texarkana, Ark. The act was formerly headlined by the celebrated Ernest T. Basset, now deceased.