Basset Bleu de Gascogne

About the Basset Bleu de Gascogne

Short legs on an old Gascony hound gave hunters in south-west France something they could follow on foot, and the Basset Bleu de Gascogne is the result. Everything about it is unhurried, from the working pace to the long, mournful note it gives when it settles on a line.

The blue of the name is an optical trick: white so heavily ticked and mottled with black that the eye reads it as slate, broken by black patches and by tan points above the eyes and on the cheeks. Height runs to somewhere around 34 to 38 cm on a long body, with low-set ears that curl inward. Because so few are registered in Britain, an enquiry in this breed is at least as much about how the two pedigrees overlap as about the individual dog in front of you.

Hip scores and a current eye certificate are the sensible opening questions. Ask about the back as well, since a long spine carried on short legs deserves thought before a mating rather than after it. Ear disease is an occupational hazard for any drop-eared scent hound, so a line with clean, trouble-free ears is worth seeking. Finish by asking the owner what the breed club recommends and what inbreeding coefficient the proposed mating would produce.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.