Basset Hounds and Small Children

If your family has small children under the age of ten, please think carefully before making the decision to adopt a dog. We recommend Childproofing Your Dog by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson as a good book to read before making any decisions. Small children and dogs lack the capability of knowing what they should and should not be doing when left alone unsupervised. Adopting a dog into a home with small children will take extra effort and training by all family members to be successful. Please make sure you are willing to take the extra time, effort, and sometimes money for training classes, that it will take to integrate a dog into your family.

One of the founding principles of AZBHR is to find "forever" homes for the animals which we take in. As such, AZBHR is very concerned about placing dogs in a home with small children. As a general rule, AZBHR will not place a dog in a home with children under the age of five. However, some situations will warrant the placement of a dog in an approved home:

1. If the home already has other dog(s) in the home.
2. The dog selected for placement has a known history with children.
3. The home has previously owned a Basset Hound and has had small children at that time.
4. The home has been approved for a dog and will agree in writing in addition to standard AZBHR forms to attend training classes with their dog with an AZBHR approved trainer.