[Dailydrool] Getting bassets up on stuff

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

I assume by this that you need to put your basset in the car, which means you need to lift him. You can use the method others suggested, if teh dog is tall enough to reach the seat or back of a van or SUV. But at some point you will probably be unable to do that for whatever reason. That's when you need to lift the hound. Lifting bassets requires more skill than strength. Bassets being heavier in the front end than the back, you simply need to have the most support at that heavier end.

Put one arm between the basset's front legs. You arm will head from the front towards the tail (though unless you have very long arms indeed, it will nowhere reach the tail. Properly placed, your arm should support a large part of the chest area). Put your other arm under the basset just forward of the back legs (this arm will go from one side of the basset to the other, bassets being quite narrow in this area). On girls, this is easy, but you will need to be careful to avoid a boys' delicate private parts.  The basset lift method is really much simpler than it sounds, verbalized. You will be supporting both the chest and the back end with this method. Though I am not particularly strong, I can lift a 50+ pound basset with some ease. I wouldn't try to carry one far this way, but it works for putting a dog in a car, which is mostly when I use it.

If you cannot do this, you may have to break down and buy a ramp. Just one warning. Lots of ramps claim to be lightweight. Be aware that if you buy a clumsy folding one, as I did, it is probably going to be more trouble than the basset lift. I would rather lift Belvedere into the van using the method above than have to haul out the ramp we use for Abner, whom I cannot lift because of his back surgery. By the time I have hauled the ramp out, gotten him to walk up it, driven him to the vet's, hauled the ramp out again, gotten him out of the van, and put the ramp back again, I am pretty tired out. And I have to do it all over again to get him home.

If I had a perfectly healthy dog and could not do the lift, I would simply buy one of the half ramps, which are much lighter but only half the length of the longer ramps. But I still think that the basset lift is the best way to go unless you have serious back trouble or even less strength than I do.

Thanks, Bob Arnold, for showing me the basset lift. It has been a great blessing.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets