"If the facial type is selected for, like selecting for short legs in Bassett Hounds--it's not because the food is closer to the ground...sheesh...."
Basset hounds didn't evolve; they were deliberately bred.
Now you have used my favorite doggie as an example...my Helga(my last and favorite basset, now gone but not forgotten), would have claimed that her legs were so short, so that she was closer to her food, but then again, she was only a dog...
Animal and plant breeding provided much of Darwin's evidence for evolution. It provided the data for the range of variation in a number of species, and it provided a baseline for the rate of mutation. And, yes, breeders know the difference.
Breeding for type is about the only long-term lab of selection we have to look at. Everything else is surmise and assumuption.