if its going to be a house dog i would go with a beagle. you will have better odds of turning it into a rabbit dog. i owned a basset one of the best dogs i had ever owned except for two things. it took over a year to house break and loved hunting for treats way more than hunting for rabbits. for hunting you cant beat a beagle. A lot of people have a lot of success with bassets. i will say this you will have a lot more compliments on a good running basset than a good running beagle. you just dont see that many of them that are hunting.