Saint-Bernard

It seems that the dogs initially used by the monks belonged to a breed now extinct, the Alpine Mastiff, which they sought to improve by removing its ferocity. A stuffed specimen of the original breed (without jowls and without drooping ears) is visible at the hospice. The dog seems to come from Upper Assyria. Bas-reliefs have been found in the Middle East dating back more than thirty centuries, resembling the short-haired Saint Bernard. It would descend from the legendary Tibetan Mastiff, and therefore originating from Asia. A few specimens would have been imported to Greece, then to Rome and would subsequently be dispersed throughout Western Europe through the Roman armies in the 1st century. The Saint Bernard appears on certain coats of arms of noble families. The Alpine Spaniel is also cited as a predecessor of the Saint Bernard. Around 1660-1670, Vaudois and Valais families offered dogs to the Great Saint Bernard hospice. This breed was first reported at the Saint Bernard hospice in 1709 by the prior Ballalu: "In 1700, Canon Camos, steward of the House, had a wheel made in which a dog is put to turn the spit ..." In 1735, the prior mentions the repair of a dog's collar in the prior's accounts. Publications recounting the exploits of these dogs who save travelers lost in the snow, as well as accounts of soldiers of Napoleon's army crossing the Great Saint Bernard pass in 1800, made this animal's reputation. Thanks to systematic breeding, the current breed was created. In 1867, Heinrich Schumacher, a resident of Holligen near Bern, established genealogical documents for his dogs. The Swiss book of origins was opened in February 1884 and the first to be registered was a Saint Bernard named Leon. The Swiss Saint Bernard Club was created on March 15, 1884 in Basel; the Saint Bernard was recognized as a breed of Swiss origin and its standard adopted at an international cynology congress in June 1887. It then became the Swiss national dog.

The Saint Bernard is gentle, theatrical and very determined. Warning: it is not a stuffed animal, it can also bite very hard. It is therefore necessary to give it strict training from the outset but without violence (like all dogs), so that it is pleasant to live with on a daily basis. The Saint Bernard tends to take up a lot of space at home. It can sometimes be stubborn. By its rescue dog instinct, it will nevertheless unhesitatingly help any person in danger. Very attached to its environment, it constitutes an excellent guard dog. It is not aggressive, except if its master is attacked. Not being a city dog, it needs lots of space.

The Saint Bernard is a dog with an imposing head. The most massive representative ever recorded presented a height of 107 cm, 89 cm at the shoulder level, 1.59 m long and weighed 100 kg. The average weight of the breed is between 51 and 80 kg or more, and the height at the withers is 70 to 90 cm for the male and 65 to 80 cm for the female. The coat can be short or long, with dense hair on the tail. The long coat has dense but flat fur, a little more abundant around the neck and hind legs. The coat is fawn colored on a white background, the fawn forming patches or an uninterrupted cloak over the back and flanks. A black mask is usually found on the face and ears. The tail is long, heavy and drooping. The shape of the eyes, dark brown to hazel, is typical and forms a small fold on the upper and lower eyelid (like a "gendarme's hat"), with a "little visible conjunctiva".