The American Beagler Forum

i got a friends looking for a basset dog that is out of hunting stock //anybody know anybody ??i never seen a basset runa rabbit myself ...if u have i;d like to hear what u have to say about that experience.. he been told they had more nose than normal beagles,,i have no clue.

I hear they are pretty good at running rabbits. Anyone I have talked to said they are usually slower but I guess that depends on the beagles you run

There was a guy named Rod Place that had hunting bassets hounds a few years ago not sure if he still does.I believe he was located in Michigan.

I had a young bassett hound many years ago that was a rabbit machine I kept her from getting over weight and in shape and she could run with a small beagle I had. If a rabbit sqauted on her it was in trouble, she caught more rabbits than any beagle I have ever own. She might have been just one of those 1 in a million. But she was a joy to hunt with good tongue used it right and had plenty of drive to hunt. RIP Brandy.

had a pair years ago, they could realy run a rabbit. could not hold up on a long day with L. P. dogs. by themselves they could run all day. realy nice to hunt over.

i had a basset hound mixed with black and tan beagle a guy gave me and was a great dog never used collar leash or any thing, minded better than anything ive even heard of, retrieved the rabbits for you heck she even got to ride in the cab of truck with us, pretty good speed to , i guess she got that from beagle , not the best looking dog but definatly differant, we shot lots of rabbits over her for three years but she got hit by a car and was killed

There once was a man on the rabbit hunter maz that had basset hounds for sale.But that was along time ago.Looks like it would take a lot of feed for them dogs.The big body that is.

I had a kennel full of bassets at one time. I have since switched over to beagles.

Just like beagles there are exceptions but normally ...

The bad,...
Super hard to find ones that search before the rabbit is up.
The gene pool is a mess. Every dog is an outcross. Hardly anyone seriously breeds them.
Because they are very attached to their owners, they don't want to leave you. So they normally start very late
The early AKC trails turned them into tracking dogs...no hunt
Bigger dog...more food more medicine
Hardly anyone shows up at the trials....Because of the lack of competition, a piece of crap dog can be a grand.
Maybe one or two in a litter are decent


The good if you can find one
They can run the fur off a rabbit
Because they are very attached to their owners, they come back after a loss or rabbit holed up. They can be a half mile away and they still come back
Nose is generally better ...but it can vary greatly
If you run them with a dog that hunts ...they will learn to hunt faster

Speed varies.. mine were as faster then the med speed beagles at the club

Find the straight legged ones ... they were out crossed to beagles somewhere way back...they usually have more hunt... Good luck

Several folks here wanted part beagle and part Bassett. They ran faster than most beagles around here where SPO is considered too fast. LP speed but closer line running and every one had a BIG mouth. They all loved to swim so were great swamp water dogs. Still see some around and they are pretty after you get used to them. Mostly black or dark tan colored. Great noses and would air scent. Not bad to coldtrail.

I knew a guy who had a beagle / basset cross that he ran on hare. It was a good hare hound with a big nose & basically winded the hare. It ran with it's nose up. No way though was this a line control dog. It would push the hare good, but it ran 10 yards to either side of the line and at a loss you might hear the dog open again 100 yards away from the check. I've heard others say the same about these crosses. You would think it might put line control into a beagle to cross it with a basset; but that's not how this dog ran.

wel thats alot of info anyhow i can give him.

There use to be a guy in Tenn. that had them.His were smaller and lighter built than the ones you see as pets and show dogs.He went out west every year and hunted rabbit and Pheasants with them.Said they would turn them loose in standing corn and the dogs would run them in there,when they got to the edge of the field they would fly.Sounds like fun.He advertised in the back of the Rabbit Hunter mag. back in the early, mid 90's.

Buckshot101 on here runs them. Maybe shoot him a pm or maybe he will chime in

thx

Before I got AKC registered beagles, I hunted a 3\4 beagle-1/4 Basset cross. I feel like they added a "wow" factor to the gun-dog. I may have just got lucky and had a good brood bitch, but I had a lot of fun for a bunch of years with that cross. The bitch was a beagle /basset. I bred her to three different beagles, all threw excellent rabbt dogs. I often think of trying this again, but I don't have the resources or time.