The Basset Fauve de Bretagne is a short legged hunting breed of dog of the scent hound type, originally from Brittany, a historical kingdom of France.

History

The breed was developed in France as a hunting dog from the larger Grand Fauve de Bretagne, a breed that is now extinct. There was a rumour that the Basset Fauve de Bretagne was also close to extinction after the Second World War, and the breed was recreated using the remaining examples of the breed and crossing in Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen and standard wirehaired Dachshunds. However, the French club denies this, and says that Basset Fauve numbers were never so low. The middle breed, the Griffon Fauve de Bretagne, still exists but it is certainly rarer than the Basset. The breed in the UK is mainly seen as a show dog and family pet, finally coming off the Kennel Club's rare breed register in 2007. It can also be found in other parts of Europe where it is used to scent trail and also as a family pet. They are loving, happy, outgoing dogs and are good with children, but it must be remembered that they are scent hounds and do retain their love of the hunt so may not suit every family. In the UK the breed has no hereditary faults; however, epilepsy has been indentified in some breeding lines in France and other parts of Europe. Some Fauves are born with black in the coat; this may or may not go with maturity. It is less common to see them with white patches but when they do occur it is generally confined to the chest and top of the head. However, even though the black ticking and white patches are not accepted colours, of course it does not interfere with their hunting ability, which is their prime job, and so these colour Fauves are still seen and occur fairly often in litters. The correct colour for a Fauve is anything from fawn to red but it should be solid with darker shaded ears.

Appearance and Size

Bassets Fauve de Bretagne are short legged dogs, 32 to 38cm (+2 cm) in height. They have coarse, dense fur which may require stripping. The hair on the ears is shorter, finer and darker than that on the coat. The ears just reach the end of the nose rather than trailing on the ground and should be pleated. They should have dark eyes and nose and ideally no crook on the front legs. The French standard says these are the shortest backed of all the basset breeds so they generally do not appear as exaggerated as the British Basset.

Wikipedia and GNU

The content of this entry is from the Wikipedia article "Basset Fauve de Bretagne" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.