by Heather J Powell

Created on: January 31, 2008

I started to ponder the subject of a dog for a lazy person and thought about my dear companion, Bessie, who passed away nearly 3 years ago. Bessie was a Basset Hound, you know, the Maytag dog or the Hush Puppy.

She was not large as Bassets go and for the majority of her 12 years she maintained a very trim figure around 45 to 50 pounds. It baffles me how she did that because I got WAY more exercise than she did and I have struggled with my weight all my life!

Bessie never needed to be walked, which is why I thought of her for this subject. We had a large yard, just over an acre, but it was not fenced. Unfortunately, although we never had to walk Bessie, she was inclined to take herself for a walk at times. Being a hound, and the one with the second best sense of smell in the doggie world, she would get a whiff of something and her nose would go to the ground, her tail would go straight up and off she would trot, oblivious to everything except that scent trail.

Many times during her first 6 months, (until I installed invisible fencing) I would stand at our property line, calling and whistling at her antenna of a tail as she headed across several of our neighbors' properties on the trail of who knew what. Occasionally my cries or whistles would penetrate her consciousness and she would stop and look back at me with an expression that said "Will you cut it out - I'm busy here!" and then she would go right back to her exploration of new worlds.

However, whenever I took Bessie anywhere she would stick to me like glue. Everyone was amazed at how obedient she was and they marveled at how well I had trained her. Oh yeah? That was just a show for the public. At home she was the same disobedient rogue she had always been.

But let's talk about the effort needed to maintain a Basset Hound. We have already established that they do not need excessive effort to exercise them, but what else is involved?

First of all, hounds smell. If you have a hound in the house you had better be in love with cleaning. Hound smell is a fact of life. It's not the dog's fault and you will never eliminate it. You just need to be prepared to vacuum your carpets and sofas regularly. And you will need to wash the dog bed weekly at the very least.

Then there is the dog itself - When asked (as I often was) if Bessie was a Beagle I would always reply, "No. Beagles have legs; Bassetts don't." Bassett bellies are very close to the ground and tend to attract and retain anything they walk over. So bathing the dog is a regular event too. Now lifting a 50 pound sausage into the tub to be bathed is no easy trick!

All in all I still think that Bassetts make good dogs for lazy people, but maybe there is more effort required than at first impression.

What I will say is that I have never found a dog with a better temperament around people, children, babies or other animals, nor a better guard dog for our property than Bessie the Bassett!

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