St. Bernard (dog breed)

The St. Bernard or Saint Bernard (UK: /ˈbɜːrnərd/, US: /bərˈnɑːrd/) is a breed of very large working dog from the Western Alps in Italy and Switzerland. They were originally bred for rescue work by the hospice of the Great St Bernard Pass on the Italian-Swiss border. The hospice, built by and named after the Alpine monk Saint Bernard of Menthon, acquired its first dogs between 1660 and 1670. The breed has become famous through tales of Alpine rescues, as well as for its large size and gentle temperament.
The St. Bernard is recognized internationally today as one of the molosser breeds. It is a giant dog. The coat is smooth being close and flat. The colour is primarily white with smaller or larger red patches with a clear to dark red mantle and reddish-brown mantle being the most 'valuable'. A brindle reddish colour and brownish-yellow colour are both allowed but less desirable. The tail is long and heavy, hanging high. The eye colour ranges from light brown to dark brown and should have naturally tight lids, with haws only slightly visible.
The earliest written records of the St. Bernard are from monks at the Great St Bernard Hospice at the Great St Bernard Pass in 1707, with paintings and drawings of the dog dating even earlier. Early British accounts of the breed described the breed as the Alpine Spaniel. The first evidence that the dogs were in use at the monastery is in two paintings dating to 1690 by Italian artist Salvator Rosa. The most famous St. Bernard to save people at the pass was Barry (sometimes spelled Berry), who reportedly saved somewhere between 40 and 100 lives. There is a monument to Barry in the Cimetière des Chiens, and his body was preserved in the Natural History Museum in Bern.
Another famous dog was Rutor, the faithful companion of the Italian priest Pierre Chanoux, named after the peak Tête du Rutor located above the Little St. Bernard pass. The classic St. Bernard looked very different from the St. Bernard of today because of crossbreeding. Severe winters from 1816 to 1818 led to increased numbers of avalanches, killing many of the dogs used for breeding while they were performing rescues. In an attempt to preserve the breed, the remaining St. Bernards were crossed with Newfoundlands brought from the Colony of Newfoundland in the 1850s, as well as with other breeds. This led to a significant change in their appearance and abilities. The long fur they inherited would freeze in the snowy climate of the Alps, weighing them down and reducing their effectiveness as rescue dogs.
The dogs never received any special training from the monks. Instead, younger dogs would learn how to perform search and rescue operations from older dogs.
The Swiss St. Bernard Club was founded in Basel on 15 March 1884. The St. Bernard was the first breed entered into the Swiss Stud Book in 1884, and the breed standard was finally approved in 1888. Since then, the breed has been a Swiss national dog.
During World War I St. Bernard dogs assisted the Red Cross and were used to carry supplies to troops in the Italian mountains, stationed in places inaccessible to mules and horses.
The dogs at the Great St Bernard Hospice were working dogs that were smaller than today's show St. Bernards. Originally about the size of a German Shepherd Dog, the St. Bernard grew to the size of today's dog as kennel clubs and dog shows emphasized appearance over the dog's working ability, along with a closed stud book.
The name "St. Bernard" originates from the Great St Bernard Hospice, a traveler's hospice on the often treacherous Great St Bernard Pass in the Western Alps, between Switzerland and Italy. The pass, the lodge, and the dogs are named for Bernard of Menthon, the 11th century Italian monk who established the station.
"St. Bernard" was not in widespread use until the middle of the 19th century. The dogs were called "Saint Dogs", "Noble Steeds", or "Barry Dogs" before that time.
The breed is strikingly similar to the English Mastiff. The modern St. Bernard is radically different from the original dogs kept at the Great St Bernard Hospice, most notably by being much larger in size and build. Since the late 1800s, the St. Bernard breed has been ever refined, using many different large molosser-type breeds, including the Newfoundland, Great Pyrenees, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Great Dane, English Mastiff, and possibly the Tibetan Mastiff and Caucasian Shepherd Dog. It is suspected that many of these large breeds were used to redevelop each other to combat the threat of their extinction after World War II, which may explain why all of them played a part in the creation of the St. Bernard as it is seen today.
The four Sennenhund (Swiss mountain dog) breeds, the Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund (Greater Swiss Mountain Dog), the Berner Sennenhund (Bernese Mountain Dog), the Appenzeller Sennenhund (Appenzeller Mountain Dog), and the Entlebucher Sennenhund (Entlebucher Mountain Dog), are similar in appearance to the St. Bernard and share the same location of origin and history, but are tricolour (black, tan and white) rather than red and white or mahogany brindle and white, as the St. Bernand is.
The Russian army kennels crossbred St. Bernards with Caucasian Shepherd Dogs to produce the Moscow Watchdogs that are still used as military service dogs in Russia today. St. Bernards have in common many characteristics of livestock guardian dog breeds.
The St. Bernard is recognised internationally by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as a Molosser in Group 2, Section 2. The breed is recognised by The Kennel Club (UK), the Canadian Kennel Club, and the American Kennel Club in the Working Dog group. The United Kennel Club in the United States places the breed in the Guardian Dog Group. The New Zealand Kennel Club and the Australian National Kennel Council place the breed in the Utility Group
St. Bernards are no longer used for Alpine rescues, the last recorded instance of which was in 1955. As late as 2004, the Great St Bernard Hospice still retained 18 of the dogs for reasons of tradition and sentiment.
An annual celebration of the breed takes place on the Little Saint Bernard Pass and at the town of Rosières-Montvalzan on the French side. St. Bernard enthusiasts and breeders gather for a dog show and parades.
A 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 9.3 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds. A 2005 Swedish study of insurance data found 74% of St Bernards died by the age of 10, higher than the overall rate of 35% of dogs dying by the age of 10.
Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) has been shown to be hereditary in the breed.
A study found a mutation in the gene ARHGEF10 to be highly associated with a juvenile-onset inherited polyneuropathy similar to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.
The Saint Bernard is predisposed to several skin conditions, these include: acral lick dermatitis, intertrigo, dermal arteritis, hygroma, and pyotraumatic dermatitis.
An American study of veterinary records found the Saint Bernard to be predisposed to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), with 2.6% of dogs having the condition compared to 0.2% for mixed-breeds. A study in England found 20 out of 369 cases of DCM to be Saint Bernards with 72% of those all presenting for atrial fibrillation.
An American study reviewing over a million cases presented to 27 veterinary teaching hospitals in North America found the Saint Bernard to be the second most prediposed to canine hip dysplasia with 14.70% of dogs having the condition compared to 3.52% overall. The Saint Bernard was also found to be predisposed towards canine cruciate ligament deficiency (CCLD) with 3.57% of dogs having the condition compared to 2.55% overall. The Saint Bernard had the third highest prevalence for dogs with both conditions at 1.19% compared to the overall rate of 0.3%.
A review of 1,934 cases of gastric dilatation volvulus (GDV) found the Saint Bernard to be greatly predisposed to the condition with an odds-ratio of 4.2. A health survey in the UK found 4.6% of dogs to have the condition and 15.1% of dogs to have died from the condition. A study in California found 3.76% of dogs presented had GDV
Known as a classic example of a gentle giant, the Saint Bernard is calm, patient, and sweet with adults, and especially children. Overall, it is a gentle, loyal, and affectionate breed, and if socialized should be very friendly. While generally not instinctively protective, a St. Bernard may bark at strangers, and their size makes them good deterrents against possible intruders.
The St. Bernard was bred to be a working companion and to this day it lives to please its master, and is an amiable yet hard worker. St. Bernards have retained their natural ability for scent work and depending on the skill of the trainer and the talents of the dog, they can participate in tracking events or even become involved in search and rescue work.
St. Bernards are often portrayed, especially in old live action comedies such as Swiss Miss, the TV series Topper, and classic cartoons (such as the 1938 Merrie Melodies short "Cracked Ice"), wearing small barrels of brandy around their necks. Avalanche victims supposedly drank the brandy to stay warm while awaiting rescue, although this is medically unsound. The monks of the St. Bernard Hospice deny that any St. Bernard has ever carried casks or small barrels around their necks; they attribute the image to an 1820 painting by Edwin Landseer, Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller (which became a popular engraving in 1831 by Charles Landseer). The monks did keep casks around for photographs by tourists.
There was apparently at least one dog that really did carry brandy. In The Percy Anecdotes, by Thomas Byerley, published in 1823, the following anecdote appears, and was often quoted in other books in the 19th century:
A Punch magazine cartoon from 1949 depicts a man with a St. Bernard and several puppies, all of which are wearing neck casks. The man explains, "Of course, I only breed them for the brandy."
A frequent joke in old MGM and Warner Brothers shorts is to depict the dogs as compulsive alcoholics who engage in frequent nips from their own casks.
The famous St. Bernard Barry found a small boy in the snow and persuaded the child to climb on his back. The dog then carried the boy to safety.