Basset Artesien Normand

Basset Artesien Normands are small-game dogs used by hunters with guns that can work alone or in a group. Their short legs enable them to penetrate very dense vegetation, which is off limits to larger dogs, to flush out game. They like to hunt rabbits, but hares and roe deer are also within their capabilities. They track and flush with great assurance, not speedily, but methodically and noisily. They are naturally cheerful and very affectionate.

When he took leadership of the breed club in 1927, Léon Verrier expressed a wish to strengthen the breed’s Norman character, in contrast to the Artois Hound. The book of standards published three years later therefore stated that the “Basset Artesien Normand ought to be only one step away from a Norman type, without a trace of the Artois”.