Long John Six Week Evaluation

 ClarkeBar Grizwold (AKC) and Grizelda Laffee Taffee have produced a wonderful litter of puppies. Three of these are of the smaller size our kennel is hoping to stabilize into a 13 inch breed of the Standard 15 inch Basset Hound. Long John is a very good example of the bigger puppy and a wonderfully kind and calm puppy.

Long John is by far the largest of this litter, weighing nine and a half pounds. Truth be told, he is big every place you want to look. It is a good idea to become familiar with our Six Point Evaluation to see what we are talking about in this evaluation. The American Kennel Club Standards are many, but we have boiled them down to just five points. We have added one point to bring some measure of aesthetic beauty into the evaluation. In this litter every puppy will receive this single beauty point and most will earn all five points for form, but this is not true in many of our other litters. With this litter any of the pups might eventually grow up into a show quality dog. But it is form we are discussing here.

When we look at Long John' head we see perfection that will probably grow into perfection. His highly domed head  is heavy in every area. His large snout supports enormous fews, covering a string jaw which is perfectly formed. The comically large ears hang perfectly at the back of his skull, appearing to hang from the neck. And his facial coloring, though changing for the red, is symmetrical and well defined. This will be a medium sized American Basset Hound with fully European head features.

Everything about this boy is big. Big feet, big bones, long back, and hefty hind quarters. His stance, perhaps the best measure for long termed bone health, is perfect and he stands wonderfully without coaxing. Long John easily earns all five points for form.

Looking at the image to the left you will see the perfect stance. Long John' weight is distributed optimally for carrying a large dog so close to the ground. He has not decided to use that enormous nose, but likely will turn scent hound without much work. 

Looks are important and Long John has the right stuff when it comes to a pretty puppy. His fur is nicely colored and, though much of his now black fur will likely turn red, we are betting the red fur we don't see will be very good and the margins well defined. Long John gets the pretty point too.

Six out of six is the way of Taffee' babies, rarely does she thrown anything less than perfect.