Do Coonhounds make good pets?
I cannot emphasize this enough: if you can handle the hound attitude, the coonhound makes a wonderful pet. They are pain tolerant, gentle, and affectionate -- making them a wonderful family pet.
Are Bassets stupid?
No way! Bassets are MUCH smarter than people think. A lot of people think hounds in general are stupid. Look at it this way -- They are smart enough to think about if they want to do things for you or not. They are real thinking dogs. They were bred to use their brain independent of their owners, and they are still that way -- independent!
Oh no they are not! They are very adaptable, but if I leave Riley alone in the room to long I will come back to find a ripped up book. A tired dog is a good dog! With my hounds, if you want to sleep all day, so do they, and if you want to run 10 miles so do they!
Are they hard to house train?
I found that my coonhounds were pretty easy, and Riley was a little difficult. I use the crate training method. Riley will give all the signals that he has to go, but if I say, "let me sleep" he'll walk right in front of you and start peeing -- looking RIGHT at you! The coonhounds usually will hold it as long as they can. I have been gone 10 hours with no accidents.
Nope, another no. Riley is a small basset and he's 40 lbs, but many adult male bassets can get up to 70lbs! I'm lucky Riley is so small because he thinks he is a lap dog!
Coonhounds need a ton of room to run.
Not neccessarily. Hounds are extremely adaptable, and when given the right amount of exercise for the individual dog, their is no need for acreage to "run around."
Hounds will kill my cat!
Possibly if you get an adult coonhound. When raising a hound puppy, it is easy to train them to not HURT the cat. I guarrantee they will still chase and tree it, but they won't hurt it. I live here with 10 cats, and no deaths yet!
Hounds are too rambunctious to be a kids dog.
I don't think so. Even crazy Clover knows when someone is too little to tackle. I think hounds have an incredible sixth sense with children. Blaze is amazing with kids. If she was big enough she'd let little kids ride her.
Hounds are untrainable!
No, they can be trained. I use a mix of positive and negative training methods. Hounds can be trained, but when your back is turned, they'll be up on the counter eating that thawing steak! It is a fine line of good and naughty with hounds. Although, I have heard of many hounds earning obedience titles!
