Bloodhound Twin Finder: 130 in the Pool

To find your Bloodhound's twin, upload one clear photo to PetMatch and the model compares your dog's face against the 130 Bloodhounds already in the pool, returning the real dog whose face sits closest to yours. The ranking turns on how the loose skin falls, how deep the dewlap hangs, and the long narrow skull underneath.

Loose skin and a pronounced dewlap

The American Kennel Club standard, approved January 9, 1996 and effective February 29, 1996, says the skin is thin to the touch and extremely loose, especially about the head and neck, where it hangs in deep folds. When the head is carried low, that skin falls into pendulous ridges and folds over the forehead and the sides of the face.

In front, the lips fall squarely, making a right angle with the upper line of the foreface. Behind, they form deep hanging flews that continue into the neck folds and constitute the dewlap, which the standard calls very pronounced. Those traits appear in a lesser degree on the bitch. A face photo has no scale, so a bitch with a full dewlap can rank beside a dog.

The Kennel Club standard, last updated April 1, 2025, calls the skin relatively loose and says the head is furnished with only a small amount of loose skin. A heavy dewlap and a cleaner head can share that same long skull.

A long, narrow skull

The AKC standard calls the head narrow in proportion to its length and long in proportion to the body, tapering only slightly from the temples to the muzzle. From above it looks flattened at the sides and nearly equal in width throughout. In profile, the skull and the foreface sit nearly in the same plane. Nose-to-stop should be at least as long as stop-to-peak. The full head, from the back of the occipital peak to the end of the muzzle, should be 12 inches or more in dogs and 11 inches or more in bitches. That peak is very pronounced, and the foreface is long, deep, and square in profile.

The eyes are deeply sunk. The lids take a lozenge or diamond shape because the heavy flews drag the lower lids down and evert them. Color runs from deep hazel to yellow. Hazel is preferred, and the standard notes it is very seldom seen in liver-and-tan hounds. The Kennel Club standard asks for a medium eye, dark brown or hazel, neither sunken nor prominent, with oval lids that meet the cornea and stay free of the eyelashes. A sunken diamond lid and a level oval lid score as different faces.

The ears are thin and soft, extremely long, set very low, and fall in graceful folds, the lower parts curling inward and backward.

Black and tan, liver and tan, or red

The colors are black and tan, liver and tan, and red. Darker coats are sometimes interspersed with lighter or badger-colored hair, and sometimes flecked with white. A small amount of white is permissible on the chest, the feet, and the tip of the stern. The Kennel Club standard names the same three colors, calls any other color or combination unacceptable, and describes the coat as smooth, short, and weatherproof.

Black and tan and liver and tan give the model a boundary between dark hair and tan. A red coat is one tone, so the score leans on skull length, eye set, and the folds.

Bloodhound or Basset

The hound that shares the loose skin, the pronounced dewlap, and the extremely long low-set ear is the Basset. The Basset Hound pool holds 304 dogs, and the Basset twin finder covers that face. The AKC Basset standard, approved January 14, 1964, calls the head medium in width, with a well-domed skull and a moderately defined stop. The top lines of the muzzle and the skull lie in parallel planes. Drawn forward, the ears fold well over the end of the nose. Height should not exceed 14 inches, and more than 15 inches at the shoulder blade is a disqualification.

A Bloodhound stands over more ground than is usual with hounds of other breeds. Mean height is 26 inches for adult dogs and 24 for bitches, with dogs usually 25 to 27 inches and bitches 23 to 25. Mean weight is 90 pounds for dogs and 80 for bitches; dogs attain 110 and bitches 100. The Kennel Club standard gives those weights as 41 and 36 kilograms, with dogs attaining 50 kilograms and bitches 45.5 kilograms. A face photo contains none of that size, so a tight crop can place a heavily wrinkled Basset near a Bloodhound.

When the twin is a mix

Mixed-breed dogs are the largest dog group on PetMatch, at 10,185. A mix that kept the long narrow skull, the low-set ears, the square lip line, and a pronounced dewlap can place ahead of the Bloodhounds.

A photo that shows the folds

Loose skin falls into pendulous ridges when the head is low, and it draws back when the head is raised. Shoot at eye level, head about level, mouth closed, so the square lip line, the dewlap, both eyes, and both ears stay in frame. Open shade holds a black-and-tan edge and keeps a red coat from washing out. The same setup is in best photos for pet twins.