Can Basset Hounds Swim?

February 5, 2015 by S. Veigel 02/01/2015

Reviewed for relevancy 06/28/2020

Today the thing that caught my eye are all the articles proclaiming, “Yes Basset hounds can swim” and “all dogs can swim if you help them remember”. A lot of the internet content on this is just fun and cute. You’ll click on “Who said Basset Hounds can’t swim?” and you see a picture of a Basset in a rubber raft (very cute). On other sites you’ll see Basset hounds fetching a toy in the ocean, but wearing a life preserver. The comments that bother me though are the ones that say, “of course they can swim”, “all dogs can swim”. And I’d be doing my Basset – indeed all Bassets – a great disservice if I left you with the impression that it’s ok for your Basset to hang around the pool unsupervised.

Look. The Basset hound is basically a full-sized Blood Hound with very short legs and a long back. An average Basset hound, though of short stature, weighs between 50 and 70 pounds with a disproportionate amount of that weight in the chest area. The Basset has big spongy feet (it does NOT have webbed feet like a retriever) and with the short legs it has a very short swimming stroke. It is an amazing tracker and a great hunter but it is more docile and definitely not a distance runner. It can be very quick but tire sooner.

In the water – with its poor weight distribution and short legs – the Basset has to work harder just to keep its head above water. So it tires easily and becomes disoriented and panicky in short order. It’s like saying even a drowning man can splash around enough to swim a little when he comes up for air. But do you really want to see him on the high dive?

If you want to swim with your Basset (if it will do it at all), use a doggy life preserver or stay close with it the whole time. Remember this is a 60 (plus) pound animal you’ll be trying to pull out of the water so make it the shallow end where you can stand up (if you’re strong enough to lift it). Make sure your priority is first to teach it how to find the pool steps and climb out. Otherwise, let it keep a healthy fear of water and NEVER leave it alone outside around a pool. Also don’t expect it to stay in the pool with you for an extended period of time.

Personally, I still say don’t do it. If you get in deep water and try to save an exhausted panicky Basset you’re not likely going to hold up a 60 pound long dog while you’re trying to swim. So please! Don’t push your best friend to do something that’s not in your dog’s best interest. They will try to do what you want, but Bassets are just not built for it.